THE TEN BLESSINGS 

A SERIES OF TWELVE SERMONS 

BY 

BISHOP Wf F. PENDLETON 



ACADEMY BOOK ROOM 
BRYN ATHYN, PA. 
1922 



PRESS OF 
THE NEW ERA PRINTING COMPANY 
LANCASTER, PA. 



■Mtt 
xblishar 



THE TEN BLESSINGS. 



Matthew V: 1-12. 



Sermon Page 

1. Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the king- 

dom of heaven 5 

2. Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be com- 

forted 17 

3. Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth 30 

4. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after 

justice; for they shall be filled 45 

5. Blessed are the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy 60 

6. Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God. . 73 

7. Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called 

the children of God 85 

8. Blessed are they which are persecuted for the sake of 

justice; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven 97 

9. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and per- 

secute you, and shall say all manner of evil against 
you falsely, for my sake 109 

10. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for great is your 

reward in heaven 124 

11. For so persecuted they the prophets which were before 

you 137 

12. A Review of the Series 146 



THE TEN BLESSINGS. 



FIRST SERMON. 

"Blessed are the poor in spirit; for their' s is the king- 
dom of heaven" (Matthew 5:3.) 

The fifth chapter of Matthew opens with these 
words: "And seeing the multitudes, He went up into 
a mountain; and when he was set, His disciples came 
unto Him; and He opened His mouth, and taught them, 
saying." Then follow the blessings, or Beatitudes, 
being the first words which the Lord uttered in what 
is known as the Sermon on the Mount; and the first of 
this Sermon, as well as the first of the Beatitudes, is. 
"Blessed are the poor in spirit; for their 's is the king- 
dom of heaven." The kingdom of heaven is composed 
of those who are poor in spirit, and they are blessed in 
the possession of it; of them is the kingdom of heaven. 

But let us review briefly the opening words of the 
chapter before proceeding to a consideration of the 
text. 

"Seeing the multitudes, He went up into a moun- 
tain." By "seeing," when predicated of the Lord, is 
signified His Omnipresence and Universal Providence; 
but, as it is said that He saw the multitudes, and since 
"the multitudes" mean those whom the Lord came 
into the world to redeem and save, by "seeing" is here 
meant the presence of the Lord by His Human with 
men in the world, or His Advent. By His going up 
or ascending into a mountain is meant the glorification 
of the Human of the Lord, or union with the Divine 
itself; for by "a mountain" in the Word is signified the 



5 



6 



Divine Love, and also the inmost heaven, where the 
Divine Love reigns. By the Lord's sitting down on a 
mountain is meant His presence in His glorified Human 
in the inmost heaven, and through this heaven with the 
whole human race. By His disciples "coming unto 
Him" is meant the presence with Him of those who 
are to be teachers and leaders of mankind in both 
worlds ; and their instruction by Him immediately fol- 
lows, for it is said that "He opened His mouth and 
taught them, saying." The subject treated of in the 
universal sense is the revelation of Divine Doctrine 
from the Word out of the inmost heaven; for by the 
mouth of the Lord is signified His Word. Properly 
speaking, the subject is the opening of the Word and 
the revelation of its internal sense in the form of Doc- 
trine, and, at the same time, instruction from it and 
illustration by it. 

Then follows the teaching given by the Lord to His 
disciples; and what the Lord said to them treats of 
the Divine Doctrine and its reception by men; setting 
forth, especially in the Beatitudes, that when the Di- 
vine Doctrine is received, man has eternal life; for 
eternal life is signified by the word "blessed." But be- 
fore the Doctrine is given, the end in view in the giving 
of the Doctrine is first represented — the end for which 
the Lord came into the world, which was the establish- 
ment of an internal church, His spiritual kingdom 
among men. This end is signified by the mountain on 
which the Lord sat when He taught His disciples, and 
the Doctrine which He taught them was to be the 
means by which His eternal kingdom was to be estab- 
lished in the world. 

The first Blessing treats of the first state of the 
church in its reception of the Divine Truth proceeding 
from the Lord, or of the Divine Doctrine revealed by 
Him out of His Word. In general, the Blessings treat 



7 



of the establishment of the church in a series, of one 
step or stage after another in its reception of the Di- 
vine Truth of the Word, until the end of which we have 
spoken is reached. Or, what is the same, they treat of 
regeneration in a series, since that which treats of the 
successive establishment of the church treats at the 
same time of the regeneration of the individual man of 
the church; for the church is established by the re- 
generation of the individuals who compose it. 

The first thing in the implantation of the church is 
the reception of doctrine from the Lord in the under- 
standing. There is no church before this ; for it is doc- 
trine from the Lord that makes the church, and nothing 
else. When true doctrine is received, the church is said 
to begin; and it does then actually begin, but not be- 
fore. Previous to this, man has been going through 
the stages of preparation for the church ; the Lord has 
been preparing him to receive true doctrine from 
heaven; but until doctrine is received, the church it- 
self is not with him. That which introduces into the 
church is the same that introduces into heaven; for the 
internal of the church is heaven; and, in the spiritual 
world, no one is introduced into heaven until he has 
received the true doctrine of heaven. Hence it may 
be said that the Blessings treat of the series of stages 
by which man is prepared for and introduced into 
heaven; indeed, at the close of the series it is said, 
"Great is your reward in heaven." 

Doctrine received into the understanding is the be- 
ginning of the church; that is, doctrine enters the mind, 
forms the understanding, and thus begins the church. 
Not only does doctrine begin the church, but the whole 
work of the establishment of the church, from begin- 
ning to end, is performed by doctrine, by the doctrine of 
truth from the Word in which the Lord is present. Doc- 
trine is the means by which the Lord approaches and 



8 



applies Himself to the understanding of man, the means 
by which a new understanding is formed. Doctrine is 
the Divine instrumentality in establishing the church, 
in regenerating man, in preparing him for heaven. 
Without doctrine there is no church, no regeneration, 
no life of heaven with men, no salvation to the human 
race. This is the reason it is said that the first thing 
in the implantation of the church is the reception of 
doctrine from the Lord in the understanding; and this 
is the reason that the first thing uttered by the Lord 
in His discourse to His disciples on the mountain was, 
"Blessed are the poor in spirit; for their's is the king- 
dom of heaven." The Blessings which follow treat 
of the various stages of the reception of doctrine from 
the Lord, or of the various stages in the establishment 
of the church by doctrine, or again, of the stages of 
preparation for heaven by means of doctrine from the 
Word, and finally of the reward in heaven to which 
true doctrine leads. 

The first thing, let us repeat, in the implantation of 
the church, the first step in the series, the first state of 
the church itself, is doctrine from the Lord received 
into the understanding, and, at the same time, faith in 
such doctrine. This agrees with the teaching in the 
Writings throughout, that faith is the first thing of the 
church in the order of time. This first state of the 
church, this first thing in the regeneration of the man 
of the church, is what is meant by the "poor in spirit," 
who are said to be blessed because the kingdom of 
heaven is theirs — "for of such is the kingdom of 
heaven." 

It has been supposed from the beginning of the 
Christian Church, and many still believe, that heaven 
is for the poor and not for the rich; and the Word of 
God does teach this in the merely literal sense. The 
Lord on one occasion said to His disciples, "It is easier 



9 



for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for 
a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God," (Matt. 
19:24) ; and where the Blessings are repeated in Luke, 
it is not said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit," but 
"Blessed be ye poor; for yours is the kingdom of God" 
(Luke 6:20). It is not surprising, therefore, that those 
who take the teachings of the Word in their most literal 
sense, who follow the letter rather than the spirit, who 
read the Word without true doctrine, should suppose 
that the poor and not the rich are to be received into 
heaven. True doctrine, however, reveals that the 
Word has a spiritual sense throughout, and that many 
things therein are spoken, not for their literal signifi- 
cance, but for the sake of their spiritual meaning. 

The letter of the Word is not without intimations of 
a spiritual sense, and the text is a remarkable instance 
of this. "Blessed are the poor in spirit " On reading 
this, the reflecting mind may see that whenever the 
poor are spoken of as blessed, and as worthy of the 
kingdom of heaven — indicating the class of those who 
are able to be received into heaven — the poor in spirit 
are meant; and such a mind may reflect further that 
when the rich are spoken of as being excluded from 
heaven, it is not meant that those who are rich in this 
world's goods are to be shut out from heaven merely 
because of their riches. True doctrine shows that the 
poor in spirit, or the spiritually poor, are meant by "the 
poor" in the Word; and that the rich in spirit, or the 
spiritually rich, are meant by "the rich" in the Word. 

It is well to note here, in respect to the spiritual sense 
of the Word, that every term has a good and an evil 
signification, for the reason that every good of heaven 
is turned into its opposite with the evil; and hence 
there is a society of evil spirits in hell opposite to 
every society of angels in heaven. The fact that every 
good and truth flowing down from heaven is turned 
into its opposite with the evil, explains many things 



10 



that appear inconsistent in the letter of the Word; for 
there is hardly a word or phrase that is not used in both 
senses, — sometimes in a good sense and sometimes in 
an evil sense. Thus there are two classes of the poor, 
when regarded in the light of the spiritual sense; 
namely, the poor who are without the riches of heaven, 
which are the knowledges of genuine truth from the 
Word, and yet who desire them from a humble heart, 
and the poor who are also without such knowledges, 
but who in the pride of their hearts do not wish for 
them, believing that they possess the riches of heaven 
in the conceit of human intelligence. These are meant 
by the Lord in Revelation, "Thou sayest, I am rich, 
and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; 
and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miser- 
able, and poor, and blind, and naked; I counsel thee 
to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest 
be rich." (3:17,18.) 

It is the same in the Word with the rich as with the 
poor; there are two classes of them. Those are said 
to be rich who possess the riches of heaven, but who are 
still humble in heart, having no conceit or pride of 
intelligence in the rich things of the Word which they 
possess. These are meant where the Lord said, "I know 
thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, but thou art 
rich." (Revelation 2:9.) The rich in the evil sense 
are those who possess the things of the Word, but who 
ascribe them to themselves and their own intelligence 
and not to the Lord. These are the rich who know not 
that they are "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and 
blind, and naked;" and these are the rich, of whom it 
is said that it is "easier for a camel to go through the 
eye of a needle than for such to enter into the kingdom 
of God." 

We read in the text that it is the "poor in spirit" 
who are received into the kingdom of heaven. By "the 



II 



poor," as we have seen, are meant those who are in 
spiritual poverty, who know that they do not possess 
the goods and truths of heaven, and are thus in humility 
of heart. In the text, the application is especially to 
those who are about to be formed into a church of the 
Lord, or about to begin the work of regeneration, or 
the state in which they are when they are prepared to 
be taught the genuine truths of heaven, which are 
spiritual riches; which state is the acknowledgment 
that they know nothing from themselves, that no truth 
is their own, but that all is from the Lord. They who 
are in this state are ready to receive genuine truths in 
the form of doctrine from the Word. Hence it is said 
that they are "poor in spirit;" for "spirit," when it is 
mentioned in the Word, signifies the understanding, or 
the understanding of truth. Blessed are they who have 
implanted in the thought of their understanding the ac- 
knowledgment that all truth is from the Lord, and 
nothing at all from man. These, in reality, are spirit- 
ually rich, for in that acknowledgment are involved 
and contained all the riches of heaven; and therefore 
it is said that "of them is the kingdom of heaven." 
This acknowledgment, indeed, is the first requisite for 
entrance into that kingdom. 

The kingdom of heaven is the spiritual kingdom 
which the Lord came into the world to establish — not 
a worldly kingdom such as the Jews vainly expected. 
John warned the unbelieving Pharisees of this when he 
said to them, "Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven 
is at hand." (Matt. 3:2.) The Lord said the same 
words when He began His preaching (Matt. 4:17). 
But the Pharisees, in the pride of their spirit — in their 
confirmed love of the world — were unwilling to be- 
lieve in any other kingdom than a kingdom of this 
world; and so they did not repent, and hence did not 
prepare the way for the Lord and His kingdom. 

The kingdom of heaven on earth is the church, a 



12 



spiritual kingdom among men, where the Lord reigns, 
and where men are prepared for heaven by the truth 
of doctrine from the Word. They who are in true 
poverty of spirit, and no others, are introduced into 
this kingdom, into this true church of the Lord. These 
are said to be blessed because in their heart-acknowl- 
edgment of the Lord as the Divine Teacher of men is 
involved all the happiness of eternal life. 

We have seen that the opening words of the chapter, 
the words which precede the text, treat of the revelation 
of the Divine Doctrine from the Lord out of the inmost 
heaven, for the sake of establishing His new spiritual 
kingdom, or a new church on earth; and the series 
which follow treat of the reception of that doctrine by 
men on earth, and thus of the establishment of the 
church with them; and reception into the understand- 
ing, as the first step, brings the blessing of heaven with 
it. All of this is made more clear by the use of the term 
spirit in the first words which the Lord uttered to His 
disciples, when He said to them that the poor in spirit 
are blessed, because they have the kingdom of heaven; 
for by the reception of the Divine Truth proceeding 
from the Lord, they are placed among those who are 
under the government of the Lord as King, and who, 
by performing uses in His kingdom, are made happy 
forever. 

When it is said in the Word that the Lord teaches, 
the meaning in the universal sense is that all Divine 
Truth proceeds from Him in His glorified Human; and 
since it is said here that He taught His disciples, the 
signification is that He reveals the Divine Truth to the 
men of the church on earth in the form of doctrine 
adapted to their understandings, that is, to the under- 
standings of those who are in humility of spirit, but 
not to the proud in spirit; for the Divine Truth can 
never be adapted or accommodated to them, since there 
is in a proud spirit, or in the conceit of human intelli - 



13 



gence, nothing that can receive the pure Divine Truth 
of the Word. It shuns the truth, shuts it out, as a 
diseased eye shuts out the pure light of the sun, being 
tormented by it. 

Now since the subject of the series in this chapter is 
the Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord and its 
reception by men, and since men first receive it in the 
understanding, the word spirit is used in the first of 
the series, and not the word heart. These two words go 
together, and are often coupled together in the Word, 
as where it is said, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, 
and renew a firm spirit within me." (Ps. 51:10.) 
Again, "Make you a new heart and a new spirit; for 
why will ye die, O house of Israel?" (Ezekiel 18:31.) 
But in the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord did not say 
at first to His disciples, "Blessed are the poor in heart," 
but "the poor in spirit;" and He said, "Blessed are the 
poor in spirit," because the subject of the series is the 
Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord, its revelation 
as Divine Doctrine to men, and its reception by them. 
In the sixth blessing, the Lord says, "Blessed are the 
pure in heart; for they shall see God." This is because 
the regenerate state of the will is there the subject; 
but six blessings are passed before this state is reached; 
and so in this first blessing "spirit" is used and not 
"heart." 

The lungs are never spoken of in the Word; but 
their function, which is breathing, or respiration, is 
frequently referred to under the term "breath" or 
"spirit;" for this is what the word "spirit" means — 
breath. In the human body, the lungs represent the 
understanding and the heart the will; but in the Word, 
"heart" and "spirit" are coupled together as represent- 
ing the will and the understanding. In the text, how- 
ever, the heart is not mentioned, but instead, respira- 
tion, breath, or spirit. Anyone can see that the respira- 
tion or breath of the body is not meant when it is said, 



14 



"Blessed are the poor in spirit." The mind is meant, 
or the understanding; and, as we have seen, by the 
"poor in spirit" are meant those who are in humility 
and not in pride of spirit or understanding, and that 
with these the church is to begin when the Divine 
Truth of Revelation, or the Divine Doctrine, is re- 
ceived by them. 

And now let us repeat — and the truth gathers force 
by repetition — let us repeat, that humility of under- 
standing consists in the acknowledgment that all truth 
is from the Lord, that all doctrine is from the Lord, 
and nothing from man, nothing from nature, nothing 
self derived. When this acknowledgment is implanted 
in the thought of the understanding, when this acknowl- 
edgment is implanted in the active thought of the 
church, then is such an understanding, then is such 
a church, blessed by the Lord; then is the life of heaven 
present in such a man and in such a church. "Blessed 
are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of 
heaven." 

It follows as a natural conclusion that they who are 
not poor in spirit will not receive the Divine Truth 
when it is revealed, will not receive or believe the teach- 
ing of the Lord as He gives it to His disciples, or 
from the disciples themselves when they are pre- 
pared to give it to men. All such, if they persist 
in their pride of spirit, will be cursed and not 
blessed. We have referred to the fact that every- 
thing in the Word has an opposite sense. So it is 
in the text, where the opposite of blessing is curse. 
Blessing expresses the state of eternal happiness in 
heaven, and curse the state of eternal misery in hell; 
and the text might be presented in its negative aspect, 
— Cursed are the proud in spirit ; cursed is he in whose 
understanding is the pride of his own intelligence; 
cursed is he who confirms himself in his own self-con- 
ceit; cursed is he who confirms himself in the belief 



15 



that all truth is from man, and not from God; for the 
kingdom of heaven is not of such. 

It is not that the Lord curses, for He never curses 
any man; but men curse themselves by persisting in 
the refusal to receive what He has to give; and here, 
in the negative aspect of the text, it is the persistent 
refusal to receive the Divine Truth which proceeds 
from Him, and to acknowledge that it is from Him — 
this is the curse, the curse of the present day. 

In our own time, the Divine Truth has been given 
anew unto men; the Lord is now teaching the spiritual 
truth of His Word to men in the world as He never 
taught it before; but there is for the most part per- 
sistent refusal to receive it; and that which stands in 
the way is the proud spirit of man, the worship of hu- 
man intelligence, the conceit of human understanding, 
the belief that truth is from nature and from man, 
and not from the Lord, the persuasion that man lives 
from himself, and not from heaven, and the Lord in 
heaven. This is the great obstacle to the reception of 
the Divine Doctrine now revealed by the Lord out of 
heaven; and this is the cause of the slow growth of the 
New Church with those who are in it. This is the curse 
of the Christian world; and the New Church is not 
yet out of the shadow of this curse. 

The conceit of human intelligence is what is signified 
in the Apocalypse by "the dragon," — the enemy of 
Michael, the persecutor of "the woman who fled into 
the wilderness," and who is called "that old serpent, 
which is the devil and satan." He is called "satan" 
because of this same pride of intelligence, and he is 
called "devil" because the pride or conceit of human 
intelligence has its origin in the love of self, which is 
always signified by "devil" in the Word. This is the 
devil, this is the satan, this is the dragon, this is the 
self-love, this is the conceit of human intelligence, 
which is the great enemy of the Heavenly Doctrines 



i6 



of the New Jerusalem, and the cause of the slow growth 
of the New Church in the Christian world. 

Blessing is life, and curse is death — eternal life, 
eternal death. It is worth while to note here the mean- 
ing of the word "blessed" in the original Greek. The 
word here translated "blessed" is the common adjective 
in Greek signifying "happy." The Blessings or Beati- 
tudes might be called the Happinesses, and the first one 
might read: "Happy are the poor in spirit; for of 
them is the kingdom of heaven." But in its root the 
word is a compound signifying "not dead," that is, 
alive, immortal; and it appears in the phrase, "the 
immortal gods," of classic literature. The poor in spirit 
are not dead; they are alive, they are immortal, they 
live forever. 

The poor in spirit are alive and immortal, live for- 
ever, because they have received the Divine Truth 
proceeding from the Lord, because they have received 
the Divine Doctrine revealed by the Lord out of 
heaven, because they are in illustration from the Lord, 
because they have been delivered from the pride of 
their own intelligence and the dominion of their own 
self love, because they have been released from spirit- 
ual captivity, because they have been delivered from 
the dominion of the spirits of the dragon, and because, 
while yet in the world, they are as to their spirits with 
the angels of heaven. And thus we see, perhaps but 
dimly, the wonderful significance of those first words 
of the Lord to His disciples gathered around Him on 
the mountain, "Blessed are the poor in spirit; for of 
them is the kingdom of heaven." Amen. 

Lessons: Jeremiah 20:7-18. Matthew 5:1-20. D. P. 206; or 

H. H. 357, or 365; A. C. 9209. 
Music: Liturgy, p. 533, 544, 576, 603, 618, 624, 678. Hymnal, 

p. 150, i£8, 162, 168. 
Prayers: Liturgy, nos. 87, 88. Hymnal, nos. 12, 13. 



THE TEN BLESSINGS. 



SECOND SERMON. 

"Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be com- 
forted:' (Matthew 5:4.) 

The three great evils that have afflicted mankind are 
famine, pestilence and war. There are, in addition, 
fire and flood, heat and cold, storm and earthquake; 
also the loss of relatives and friends, the loss of prop- 
erty and possessions, the loss of reputation and fame; 
and other evils which by their presence bring distress, 
calamity, or ruin upon states, communities, families, 
or individuals; and they cause men to mourn, they 
cause grief of mind and spirit, which sometimes takes 
the form of weeping or bitter lamentation, causing 
tears to stream from the eyes, accompanied perhaps 
by cries uttered from the mouth, and even in some 
nations with beating of the breast. 

The evils, however, which we have mentioned, and 
which are the cause of mourning, distress, or grief, are 
merely natural evils. They pertain to this world and 
to the life of the body. Famine, pestilence or war, 
fire, flood, or earthquake, may kill the body, but they 
cannot destroy the soul. They may bring to an end 
life in the natural world, but they cannot bring to an 
end life in the spiritual world. The destruction of the 
whole earth, the wiping out of the visible heavens, 
cannot cause man as a spiritual being to cease to exist. 

These are the things men mourn over — the evils 
which bring natural calamity. But in the eyes of the 
angels they are of little moment. In heaven they are 
not regarded, except so far as they contribute to break 
the force of natural loves, and thus to bring man into 



17 



1-8 

a becoming state of humility, by which he is prepared 
to receive the spiritual things of the Word. The angels 
regard these natural evils as of small moment, because 
they are not the real evils that afflict the human race. 
They indeed bring natural calamity or death, but they 
do not bring spiritual death. Spiritual death is dam- 
nation or eternal misery in hell; it is to be shut out 
of heaven forever, and is what is meant by the " sec- 
ond death" in the Book of Revelation. These natural 
evils, therefore, are not treated of in the spiritual sense 
of the Word, which is the Word for the angels in 
heaven. 

The spiritual sense, which is the angelic Word, is 
also to be the Word for the New Church on earth, 
and the man of the New Church must learn to look 
upon the natural evils spoken of as of but little ac- 
count; he must learn that spiritual evils are the evils 
to mourn over, the evils which destroy the soul, which 
bring ruin to the spiritual life of men. The Lord, in 
all that He uttered, was speaking to and teaching 
primarily the angels of heaven, and at the same time 
the New Church which was to come. Thus He spoke 
of spiritual things to spiritual men and angels, while 
in the outward form and appearance He spoke of nat- 
ural things to natural men and children. When He 
spoke, as in the text, of mourning, He referred prim- 
arily and essentially to mourning, distress, and grief 
over the spiritual evils which afflict the human race, 
and which destroy men eternally. 

In the outward form, indeed, He spoke of the use 
which mourning over natural evils may bring to men, 
by breaking the power of the lusts of the flesh, and 
thus in preparing them for the implantation of the 
spiritual seed of the Word. Viewed in this light, even 
mourning over natural evils becomes a blessing, and 
there is a comfort and consolation that flows forth 



19 



from it, since, in the Providence of the Lord, it is made 
to contribute to the advancement of spiritual life. Even 
in this sense it may be said, "Blessed are they that 
mourn. 7 ' But this is not the sense primarily in view 
in the words of the Lord. The spiritual sense of what 
He said treats of the spiritual evils which desolate the 
church, which bring it to its consummation, which de- 
stroy what is spiritual in the life of man, and which 
would destroy all that is spiritual in the world if Di- 
vine power did not intervene to stay the hand of the 
destroyer. 

Grieving over the spiritual evils which desolate the 
church, and which tend to its destruction, is signified 
by "mourning" and "weeping" in many passages of 
the Word, treating at the same time, as in the text, 
of the consolation which is to come to those who so 
mourn and weep over the church, even as the Lord 
wept over Jerusalem. The following are examples: — 

"A great company shall return thither. They shall 
come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead 
them; and I will cause them to walk by the rivers of 
water in a straight way" (Jer. 31:8, 9), treating of a 
new church which is to be established by the Lord in 
His coming. 

The same is the subject of the following passages: 

"Ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall re- 
joice; and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall 
be turned into joy." (John 16:20.) 

"He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord 
God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the 
rebuke of His people shall He take away from off all 
the earth; for the Lord hath spoken." (Isa. 25:8.) 

"And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and 
come to Zion with singing and everlasting joy upon 
their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and 
sorrow and sighing shall flee away." (Isa. 35:10.) 



20 



"The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall 
feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains 
of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from 
their eyes." (Rev. 7:17.) 

"God Himself shall be with them, their God. And 
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and 
there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor cry- 
ing, neither shall there be any more pain; for the 
former things are passed away." (Rev. 21:4.) 

And in Luke, where the Blessings are repeated, in 
the passage corresponding to the text, we have these 
words: "Blessed are ye that weep now; for ye shall 
laugh." (Luke 6:21.) 

Thus are the former things to pass away, and new 
things to come; thus are they to receive consolation 
who become regenerate and are to be formed into a 
spiritual church by the Lord; thus is the promise 
given of rescue and relief to those who mourn over 
the desolated state of the church, and are in tempta- 
tions on that account. They will be comforted; all 
their mourning and weeping shall cease; for God Him- 
self shall "wipe away all tears from their eyes." 

Our attention naturally turns here to the cause of 
the mourning of which we have been speaking, the 
cause of the mourning or grief that is treated of in 
the spiritual sense of the text. What is it that causes 
the spiritual man, the regenerating man, to mourn? 
What is the cause of grief in a spiritual church that is 
being formed by the Lord? 

We have seen that the cause is not worldly calamity, 
or natural evil of any kind — nothing that affects the 
body or life in the world; but that it is grief over the 
spiritual desolation of the church, grief on account of 
the presence in the church of that which is destroy- 
ing its spiritual life, rendering it impossible for men 
to be saved, if nothing comes to stay its destructive 



21 



course. Perceiving this, the spiritual man grieves; he 
mourns over the state of the church, is in distress on 
account of the presence of that which threatens his 
own spiritual life, as well as that of the church and of 
the human race. But what is the particular evil, or 
falsity of evil, that is in view in the words of the text, 
where the Lord said to His disciples, " Blessed are 
they that mourn"? There must be some special thing, 
some particular falsity of evil in view here which 
causes grief to the man of the church. 

In order to find this out, we must go back to the 
verse which precedes the text, where the Lord says, 
"Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the king- 
dom of heaven." We must go back even further, 
namely, to the opening words of the chapter, where 
we are told that the Lord, on "seeing the multitudes 
went up into a mountain, and sitting down there, His 
disciples came unto Him, and He opened His mouth 
and taught them." From these opening words we learn 
that the subject of the series in the spiritual sense is 
the revelation of the Divine Doctrine out of the in- 
most heaven, and the instruction of those who are in 
simple good, and the formation of a new church out 
of them, without which the saving work of the Lord 
would cease with the human race, and all men would 
perish. Then follows what is called the Sermon on 
the Mount, beginning with the series of the Blessings; 
and the first words uttered by the Lord are, "Blessed 
are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of 
heaven." 

The words "poor in spirit" take up and express the 
truth that is universal in the series of the Lord's dis- 
course on the mountain; namely, that the Divine Doc- 
trine must be revealed for the restoration of the church 
and the salvation of mankind. But the application 



22 



here is that this Doctrine must enter and be received 
by the understanding in a state of humility of thought 
and affection. The understanding is signified by 
"spirit," and the humility of the understanding by be- 
ing "poor in spirit." The first state of the Church is, 
in fact, the subject of these opening words of the Ser- 
mon on the Mount, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." 
Blessed are they that acknowledge that they know and 
understand nothing from themselves, or from the light 
of their own intelligence, but that the Lord alone 
knows all things, and that He alone is able to teach 
from His Word the true Doctrine of heaven. It is 
this, state of the understanding that receives revelation 
from the Lord out of heaven; and with those who are 
in it a new church will be formed, and salvation be- 
come present with men. This is the first state of the 
church, and the church does not begin until the Di- 
vine Doctrine is received by those who are in this hum- 
ble state of the spirit, in this humility of thought in 
the understanding, who thus are not in a state of hu- 
man self-conceit, or in the pride of mere human in- 
telligence. With these alone the church on earth be- 
gins, and with them alone is it established, and they 
alone are saved. 

Two things are presented to view in these opening 
words of the Lord: first, the humility of the under- 
standing, which receives the true doctrine of the Word 
when it is taught by the Lord; and second, the oppo- 
site of this, namely, the non-humility of the under- 
standing, or the pride of human intelligence, the be- 
lief or persuasion that man lives from himself and not 
from God, which persuasion, or human self-conceit, 
is signified by the dragon in the Apocalypse, and by 
the serpent in the Garden of Eden. This same human 
self-conceit is in view in the first words of the Ser- 
mon on the Mount, in view as that which opposes the 



23 



reception of the Divine Doctrine; and this negative 
or opposite sense of the Lord's words may be expressed 
by saying, "Cursed are they who are not poor in spirit; 
for the kingdom of heaven is not theirs." Cursed are. 
they who are saturated with the pride of human in- 
telligence, who are in the persuasion that they live 
from themselves and not from God; for thereby they 
shut themselves out of heaven, and cannot be saved; 
for the church, the Lord's heaven on earth, cannot be 
established with them. This falsity of evil, this false 
persuasion in full possession of the understanding, de- 
stroys the church and all things of it, and effectually 
prevents its reestablishment with those men who are 
in it. This is the falsity of evil that generally pre- 
vails in a vastated church; this is the falsity of evil 
that prevails now in the Protestant Christian world; 
and unless the Lord should come again, no flesh could 
be saved. 

There are some, however, who receive the Lord in 
His coming; there are some who are not under the 
dominion of their own intelligence; there are some 
who are "poor in spirit," who acknowledge in heart 
that they do not live from themselves but from God, 
whose minds can receive the Divine Doctrine when it 
appears, who are interiorly affected by the truth of 
the Word, whose understandings are illumined by that 
truth, and who, in the light of new truth, are able to 
perceive the desolation of the church, and the cause 
of that desolation. And because this, — the pride of 
human intelligence, — threatens the integrity of the 
Doctrine itself, there is distress, grief, and mourning. 

The distress arises, therefore, from seeing that the 
church is in ignorance because it is without truth and 
unwilling to see the truth; from seeing that the falsi- 
ties of self-intelligence have taken the place of the truth 
of the Word; from seeing that these falsities, and the 



2 4 



pride of self-conceit which they engender, axe in the 
church, and are in the active endeavor to destroy what 
remains of the church, and prevent any new implanta- 
tion of its principles and life. Hence the grief, the dis- 
tress, the mourning. But there is at the same time resist- 
ance; for to see evil as evil is to resist it. This resist- 
ance to the falsities which assail the faith and life of 
the church is what is called in the Writings the combat 
of temptation; the temptation itself is what is signified 
by "mourning" in the text. 

Let us at this point endeavor to make clear that the 
thing which desolates the church, destroying the 
spiritual life of men, threatening the existence of a 
new church, causing grief, distress, mourning with 
those who are in charity, and who love the spiritual 
things of the Word — this cause of the desolation of 
the church is not the ordinary self-conceit or pride in 
the possession of the scientifics of the world, such as 
men have who are in no concern whatever about spirit- 
ual things, having not even any profession of belief 
in them, openly denying and rejecting them. This 
common self-conceit of men is not what is specially 
in view in the words of the Lord. It is indeed not 
excluded, for those who are in it are in no state to 
receive the spiritual truth of the Word, and even de- 
spise and reject it when presented. But they are in 
no concern about such things; they are indifferent to 
them, and on this account make no active assault upon 
the spiritual life of the new church. But those are 
meant who are in pride, in self-conceit, on account of 
their possession of the things of the Word and of 
heaven. They are themselves in no concern about 
salvation and eternal life, but they are concerned 
about dominating the thought and life of others, are 
concerned about their own position of eminence and 
reputation for learning in the things of the Word, and 



25 



are ever ready to assail and destroy the faith of those 
of the church who are not willing and ready to become 
subject to their thought and will. They make use of 
the spiritual truth of the Word to build themselves up, 
and at the same time to oppress and subjugate others. 
It was such as these that formed the imaginary heavens 
before the Last Judgment, and who cast the simple 
good into hell; it is such as these that actively oppose 
the institution of a new church, and endeavor to de- 
stroy the new doctrine as soon as it is born into the 
world. And the greatest danger to a new church is, 
that they may even outwardly accept its doctrine, 
for the sake of the worldly reward of power and do- 
minion that it brings. It is such as these that are 
meant by the dragon in the Apocalypse, who per- 
secuted the woman; by the serpent in the Garden of 
Eden who deceived the woman; and who assault the 
"poor in spirit," causing them anguish and distress of 
spirit, grief and mourning. 

It is said in the Apocalypse that the dragon stood 
before the woman, ready to devour her child as soon 
as it was born; and we are told that by the "woman" 
is meant the New Christian Church which was to come, 
and by the "man-child" its doctrine. The "dragon," 
as we have seen, signifies the pride of human intelli- 
gence in spiritual things, especially that intelligence 
which concocted the dogma that man is saved by faith 
alone without obedience to the Commandments; teach- 
ing that the Commandments are to be kept for the 
sake of moral and civil life in the world, but that they 
contribute nothing to salvation, faith being the only 
instrument by which men are saved, and by which 
they become heirs of the spiritual kingdom of the 
Lord. 

Now, wherever the New Church appears it is as- 
sailed, and its existence threatened, by the ruling fal- 



26 



sity of evil in its environment. In the Protestant 
Christian world, the environment of the New Church 
in its beginning — the ruling evil — is the pride or con- 
ceit of human intelligence; and the ruling falsity of 
that evil is the belief or persuasion that man lives from 
himself and not from God, and that since he lives from 
himself, he also thinks from himself, his thought is 
his own, self-derived, from no source outside of him- 
self. These are they who are not "poor in spirit," with 
whom the kingdom of heaven is not, and with whom 
it can never be until after serious and bitter repent- 
ance. This is the state that opposes the New Church, 
that assails its doctrine and life; it is the dragon that 
stands before the woman, ready to devour her child 
as soon as it is born, it is the same serpent that de- 
ceived the woman in the Garden of Eden. It is this 
state of conceit, of pride in the things of human in- 
telligence, of belief that man lives and thinks from 
himself, that makes the reception of the Doctrine of 
the New Church difficult, and causes the Church at 
first, and for a long time, to be confined to a few, and 
is the cause that it will not increase among many un- 
till it passes through "great tribulation and affliction, 
such as was not from the beginning of the world, or 
ever shall be again." It is this state that is signified in 
the text by they that mourn; it is this state that 
causes grief and distress to those who are in the spirit- 
ual affection of truth, who love the spiritual things of 
the Word of God. 

It was said that the first thing of the church is the 
revelation from heaven of genuine doctrine, and the 
reception of it into the understanding of those who 
are meant by the "poor in spirit." But as the un- 
derstanding of truth is nothing without spiritual af- 
fection, nothing but thought from the memory; and 
as spiritual affection is nothing else than the activity 



27 



of charity, or love to* the Lord and love to the neigh- 
bor; so the real truth is, that love or charity is the 
first thing of the church; and hence its activity, which 
is the spiritual affection of truth, is the first thing of 
the church, and they are in this affection who are 
meant by the "poor in spirit"; and no others but those 
who are in such spiritual affection will receive, or can in- 
teriorly receive the spiritual truth of the Word as now 
revealed by the Lord in His second coming into the 
world. 

It is this same spiritual affection of truth that is 
signified in the Apocalypse by the woman clothed with 
the sun, who was persecuted by the dragon. The as- 
sault of the dragon, or of those who are in the pride 
of human intelligence, — those who believe that they 
live from themselves and not from God, — is upon the 
new doctrine indeed, upon the understanding of truth 
indeed, but in reality it is an assault upon the spiritual 
affection of truth, which is the first of the church, 
which, if it does not survive — if it is destroyed, if it 
dies, — the church will die, spiritual life will be ex- 
tinguished from among men, and all will be over with 
the human race. 

It is the perception of this danger to the Church 
that is the cause of grief and mourning to the spiritual 
man of the Church. It is a danger to the Church, — 
its greatest danger, — because it is the ruling falsity 
of evil in the Protestant Christian world, and is what 
has desolated the Church. It is what has destroyed, 
and is destroying, the spiritual life of men; and it is 
that which will strangle the life of the New Church 
in its beginning, if it is not met and successfully re- 
sisted; and the spiritual man grieves because of its 
presence and activity. The danger is the greater be- 
cause this evil is implanted in the natural of every 
man. It is this in the man of the Church himself 



28 



which, if excited into activity, will deceive him, lead 
him astray, and destroy his spiritual life, even as the 
serpent deceived the woman in the Garden of Eden, 
and through the woman the man, and caused their 
expulsion from the Garden of the Lord. It is the 
perception of this threatening danger; it is the per- 
ception of this falsity of evil active in itself ; it is the 
perception of his own tendency to be persuaded that 
he lives from himself, thinks from himself, and not 
from God; the perception of his own tendency to at- 
tribute his truth, his thought, to himself ; the percep- 
tion of this very activity in the New Church itself, 
which is the cause of the grief and mourning. It is 
the perception that the life of the Church is threat- 
ened, that the spiritual life of every man in the Church, 
including himself, is in danger, — it is this that causes 
him to grieve over the desolation of the Church, to 
grieve because of the continued activity of that which 
threatens its existence, that causes the difficult recep- 
tion of the spiritual truth of the Word, that places the 
New Church in jeopardy, and causes its existence in 
the Christian world to be exceedingly precarious, and 
makes it necessary in the Providence of the Lord that 
it should at first be confined to a few, while a gradual 
preparation is made for its increase among many. And 
we may be sure that this increase will not take place 
until the dragon and all his progeny are driven forth 
from the interior thought and life of the Church. 

This, however, will be done. The danger will be 
removed; the dragon will be cast out; the pride of 
intelligence will be cast down from its seat; the life 
of heaven will become an established factor in the life 
of men ; the Church will increase from a few to many ; 
the New Heaven will continue to be formed from a 
New Church on earth; the Church will consist of re- 
generate men and women, and they will no longer 



29 



fear the assaults of the destroyer of the souls of men; 
the land will no longer be desolate; the "wilderness 
shall rejoice and blossom as the rose"; the "tabernacle 
of God will be with men, and He will dwell with them, 
and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall 
be with them, their God." 

For has not God Himself, the Lord our Savior Jesus 
Christ, promised to comfort them that mourn, to calm 
the unrest and disturbance of mind arising from 
temptations, to inspire a hope that would take the 
place of despair, — a hope for the continued existence 
of the church, a hope for the regeneration and sal- 
vation of the individual man, — a new perception, a 
new light, a clearer understanding, a new delight in 
the things of heaven. All these, and immensely more 
are involved and contained in the words of our Lord 
to His disciples, when He said unto them, as He sat 
upon the mountain, "Blessed are they that mourn; 
for they shall be comforted." Amen. 
Lessons: II. Samuel 1:11-27. Revelation 7. A. C. 5480; or 

A. R. 884; or N. J. H. D. 187-195; or T. C. R. 165. 
Music: Liturgy, p. 521, 528, 532, 554, 565, 570, 620, 630, 639. 

Hymnal, p. 134, 139, 145, 155, 176, 179. 
Prayers: Liturgy, nos. 195, 196. Hymnal, nos. 18, 19. 



THE TEN BLESSINGS. 



THIRD SERMON. 

"Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the 
earth" (Matthew 5:5.) 

The first word spoken by the Lord to His disciples 
in the memorable discourse on the mountain was 
Blessed; and the truth contained in that word, in its 
spiritual sense, is that the happiness of eternal life 
is given to those who are in doctrine from the Word, 
and in a life according to it. The word occurs nine 
times in as many verses, beginning with the third and 
ending with the eleventh; and it is the first word of 
each of these verses, thus distinguishing it as represen- 
tative of the leading idea in the spiritual sense of the 
Beatitudes, namely, the happiness which comes by 
means of doctrine from the Word. In the twelfth 
verse, which closes the series, the word does not occur, 
but in its stead the idea is expanded in the sentence, 
" Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for great is your re- 
ward in heaven." These words show clearly that 
heavenly reward, or the delight and happiness of 
eternal life, is the one end in view in the Blessings 
throughout, and that all other things in them are as 
administering means to that end. 

The first of these administering means is doctrine 
from the Word. " He opened His mouth and taught 
them, saying." The second is the humility of the un- 
derstanding in the reception of doctrine from the 
Word, signified by the " poor in spirit." A third is 
temptation, signified by " they that mourn." Other 
means or intrumentalities follow in the series to the 
end. They are Divine means in the natural of man, 



30 



31 



provided of the Lord for the conjunction of the ex- 
ternal man with the internal in the process of regenera- 
tion, by which, when it takes place, heaven is opened 
and man is introduced and made happy forever. 

A fourth administering means is now before us, that 
which is signified by "the meek," who, because of their 
meekness, are to "inherit the earth." The instru- 
mentality for the opening of the internal man repre- 
sented by them is submission to obedience, coming as 
the fruit of temptation. For man, having been sub- 
dued by affliction, by mourning and distress over the 
state of the church, is now humble and submissive to 
the ways of Providence. The humility of the under- 
standing is now followed by humility of the will. Let 
us now take up for consideration this instrumentality 
provided by the Lord in the natural for the conjunc- 
tion of the external man with the internal. 

There are two classes of persons signified by " the 
meek" in the Word, — those who are meek in the 
natural sense, and those who are meek in the spiritual 
sense. In the text, as in all passages of the Word, 
it is important to view what is said by the Lord, not 
only in natural light, but also in spiritual light ; or to 
see what is said, not only under a natural idea, but 
also under a spiritual idea. The law is, first that 
which is natural, and afterward that which is spirit- 
ual; or, first, that which is natural, in order that we 
may be led by it to see what is spiritual. 

It is well known who the meek are in the natural 
sense, and what is meant by meekness; but it will be 
useful here to consider briefly the meaning of the 
word, not only in English, but in the languages of 
Revelation, in order to prepare our minds more fully 
to understand what spiritual meekness is. For the 
natural is the counterpart of the spiritual, and corre- 
sponds with it; and by it, as one of the instrumen- 



32 



talities, we may learn to know the spiritual thing which 
is its cause and origin. Too often, however, the 
natural, because it resembles the spiritual as the effect 
resembles its cause, is but a counterfeit presentation 
of it, and is supposed to be the real thing. And so 
it is, that natural meekness is thought to be the real 
essential meekness of heaven and a salvable quantity 
in human life, by those who are ignorant of the spirit- 
ual quality represented in the Word by meekness. 

In Latin, the primary idea in the word translated 
" meek " is mild, gentle, placid, calm. In Greek, the 
meaning is the same, having also the force of benevo- 
lent, humane, involving good will, or the outward ap- 
pearance of it; but in its root, it signifies to practice, 
perform, obey. The Hebrew word translated " meek " 
has the meaning of suffering, distress, affliction. The 
English word signifies mild of temper; not vain, or 
haughty, or resentful; patient, submissive, yielding, 
unassuming; also gentle, quiet and refined in manners; 
amiable. All these meanings are necessary in order 
to get the full force of this word, and see it in a 
broad and comprehensive view. 

We have before us, then, the picture of a man of 
gentle disposition, fine manners, and one who is on 
that account well liked by his neighbors. A learned 
writer, in commenting on this word as used in the text 
before us, says that by " the meek " are meant " those 
who are of a quiet, gentle spirit, in opposition to the 
proud and supercilious scribes and Pharisees, and 
their disciples. We have a compound word in English 
which once fully expressed the meaning of the original, 
namely, gentleman; but it has now almost wholly lost 
its original signification." (Clarke.) The writer was 
speaking especially of the meaning of the word in the 
original Greek. 

The popular idea of the Lord, and as represented 
in the pictures of Him, is based upon the letter of the 



33 



Word, wherein He is spoken of as meek and humble 
in aspect, and where indeed He speaks of Himself as 
" meek and lowly in heart." He is also called the 
" Lamb of God," and there is no animal so meek in 
appearance as a lamb. But a striking paradox occurs 
in the Book of Revelation, where the evil are said to 
flee away, and call upon the rocks and the mountains 
to cover them, and hide them from the wrath of the 
Lamb (Rev. 6: 16) ; for terror-inspiring wrath is not a 
characteristic of a lamb, but rather of a lion. 

Meekness, as defined in what we have said, is called 
in the Writings natural good, which may be a cover 
for the evils of self-love that lie hidden within; or it 
may have within it a genuine spiritual internal, and 
be but the natural expression of a true meekness and 
good will that has its abode in the spirit of man from 
a heavenly origin. Meekness, or natural good, is 
partly hereditary and partly acquired, and has its 
origin in a desire to please or conciliate from fear of 
punishment or hope of reward ; later in life especially, 
it is exercised for the purpose of deceiving and gain- 
ing selfish ends, with the object of dominion or ap- 
propriating to one's self what belongs to another. 

In what is perhaps its best aspect, natural meekness* 
is the result of suffering, affliction, sorrow, arising from 
ill health or natural calamity, by which the natural 
temper is subdued; and, in some cases, causing the 
lusts of the natural man to be so broken or tamed that 
the way is opened and prepared for the introduction 
of a true state of spiritual meekness. In other cases, 
however, it is but an external subduing or submissive- 
ness, which will be laid aside when there is full free- 
dom; it is then but the imprisonment of the lusts of 
the natural man, which will break forth into open evil 
when external fear or other external hindrance is laid 
aside, as is the case with every one after death. 



34 



If we were to seek for a word to express the real 
quality of meekness, we should find it in the term 
submissive. The meek man is submissive to the 
things which press upon him from without, and he 
bends or yields to them. Sometimes the term is used 
contemptuously of those who yield, or appear to yield 
too much, or submit too easily to wrong doing or op- 
pression, or persecution. This may be done from 
weakness, or it may be done from internal strength; 
in any case, the outward form is that of submission, 
and at the same time of obedience. 

The submission of the meek man may be a mere 
submission to the world, at which he internally rebels; 
or it may be a submission to all things that come upon 
him or happen to him as of the Lord's Providence. He 
is thus cultivating a state of content with his lot, ac- 
cepting all things as provided or permitted of the Lord, 
in which state the kingdom of heaven is present. 

We are now led to a consideration of the real meek- 
ness that is treated of in the text, — the meekness of 
the spirit, not that of the body or of life in the 
world; the meekness that is within, but which does 
not appear, or may not appear, to outward eyes, or to 
eyes that see in the light of the world; but which 
appears in the light of heaven, and is seen by eyes 
which see in the light of heaven ; the meekness that is 
represented in natural meekness, but is as distinct from 
it as the life of heaven is distinct from the life of the 
world; the meekness in which the angels of heaven 
are, and in which men may be — in which men will 
be — when they live an angelic life while still on earth. 
This is the state spoken of by the Lord when He said, 
" Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the 
earth." 

In order to understand fully what is meant in the 
text, it is necessary to go back and consider the verses 
which precede. 



35 



This is the third of the blessings. The first is, 
" Blessed are the poor in spirit." The second is, 
" Blessed are they that mourn." And now the third is, 
" Blessed are the meek." Before the Blessings are 
spoken by the Lord, we are told that He "went up 
into a mountain, and when He was set, His disciples 
came unto Him, and He opened His mouth and taught 
them." The teaching follows, or the doctrine; for 
teaching is doctrine. The Sermon on the Mount, 
which the Lord spoke to His disciples, beginning with 
the Blessings, was doctrine from the Lord for the 
Christian Church; and in its internal sense it is 
Divine Doctrine revealed out of heaven by the Lord in 
His Second Coming for the New Christian Church, 
and treats of its reception by men in the world, by 
which reception the Church is formed. 

Everything in the Word of God is expressed in a 
series, — one thing after another, and one thing con- 
nected with another, as the links of a chain. Such a 
series appears even in the letter, and such a series is 
complete in the internal sense. Now since the series in 
the internal sense of the Sermon on the Mount treats 
of the Divine Doctrine and the reception of it by 
men, — as indicated by the preliminary words, " He 
opened His mouth and taught them " — the first state 
of the reception of the Doctrine from the Lord is 
revealed in the first blessing, where it is said, 
" Blessed are the poor in spirit." This signifies that 
they are blessed, or will receive eternal life, who ac- 
knowledge in the thought of their understanding that 
all truth is from the Lord and nothing from mere hu- 
man intelligence; that the pride of human intelligence, 
the persuasion that man lives from himself, is not the 
origin of any truth whatsoever, but rather of all the 
falsity that afflicts the human race. 

The second state of the reception of doctrine is 
indicated in the words, " Blessed are they that mourn." 



36 



This signifies that they will receive eternal life who 
are in grief when they perceive the state of the church, 
as being saturated with the pride of human intelli- 
gence, or with the persuasion that man lives from him- 
self and not from God. There is salvation and eternal 
life in this state, because there would be no grief if 
there were no perception of truth, and there would 
be no perception if there were no affection of truth. 
Because others do not see, and will not see, what he 
so clearly sees, there is grief and distress. At the 
same time, there is also resistance, combat, tempta- 
tion. The subject of temptations is fully treated later 
on in the Blessings, where persecution is mentioned; 
but a remarkable thing to be noted is that every sub- 
ject in the entire series of the Blessings is involved in 
each. So it is here; while the combats of temptation 
are the leading subject in the latter part of the Bless- 
ings, they appear even in this early stage, and this 
because there is no progress in the life of the church 
without temptations, and they are present in its very 
beginning; and because of temptation, because of in- 
ternal resistance to evil and falsity, heaven is present 
in the interiors of man, and the Lord Himself is 
present there. 

To see evil is to resist it. Every one who sees the 
real nature and enormity of any evil at once strives 
against it as something destructive and horrible. He 
who grieves because of the presence of the falsity of 
evil in the church strives at the same time against it 
in his spirit; he is therefore in temptation combat, 
and the combat is from the affection of truth. Be- 
cause he loves the truth, he struggles against that 
which is hostile to it, which assaults it and would de- 
stroy it. To love the truth is to love the Lord from 
whom the truth is, and it is at the same time to love 
the neighbor for whom the truth is. We now there- 



37 



fore discover in the series of the Blessings the presence 
of love and charity in the internal man; and indeed 
from this time onward it is, and is to be, the internal 
active in the life of the regenerating man. 

This internal activity, this good, this love, this 
charity, this love of truth or will of good, the product 
of combat or resistance; this bending, this yielding 
to the Lord, this submission to the truth which is 
from the Lord; this state in the internal of man, this 
presence of the life of heaven, this presence of the 
Lord there, is what is signified by " the meek," who 
are said to be " blessed," and who shall " inherit the 
earth." Hence we read that man, by the combats of 
temptation, or by resistance, " becomes meek, humble, 
simple and contrite in heart" (A. C. 3318) ; and 
further that the spiritual man, being introduced into 
charity by temptations, " becomes actually like a dove 
as to meekness, and like an eagle as to the sight of 
his mind." (Coronis 30.) 

The spiritual man may therefore bend to the life of 
the world, as the tree of the forest bends to the wind, 
but there is no yielding in his internal man. Inter- 
nally he bends, yields, submits to the Lord alone, and 
to His truth alone. He submits internally to the Lord, 
and not to the world; he resists the entrance of the 
world, its life, its delight, its falsity of evil, into his 
interior thought. It makes no part of his understand- 
ing of truth, nor does it affect his will. He is inwardly 
amiable, lovable; for he has the Lord's love; he is 
loved by the angels, who are consociated with him in 
his spirit. He is meek even as is said of Moses, 
" Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the 
men which were upon the face of the earth." (Num- 
bers 12: 3.) Moses here represents the Lord, who 
was meekness itself when He was in the world. Man 
is to be in the image of the Lord, and of such a man 



38 



it is said, " The meek shall inherit the earth; and shall 
delight themselves in the abundance of peace." (Psalm 
37: 11.) They have not reached their full inheritance 
in the stage treated of in the text; for the natural 
signified by " the earth " is as yet occupied by the 
things which oppose; but life from the Lord is in the 
internal, the life of love and charity; therefore they 
are called " the meek " because of submission to the 
Lord, and the promise is given that they shall " inherit 
the earth." At first the church is called the kingdom 
of heaven, in which they are to be who are " poor in 
spirit " ; but now it is called " the earth," or the land, 
which the meek are to inherit after they have passed 
through temptations; even as the children of Israel, 
after their forty years of trial in the wilderness, in- 
herited the Land of Canaan. 

And now we would call attention to the two streams 
which make their appearance as we enter into the in- 
ternal sense of the Blessings; the one stream leading 
to heaven, and the other to hell. These two streams 
cannot be together in the same mind, except where they 
come together in conflict and war. The one stream, 
flowing first from the Lord and reacting in man, re- 
turns again to the Lord in heaven. Reacting in man, 
it is in him the affection of truth, and the under- 
standing of truth from that affection; this is what is 
signified by the "poor in spirit." The other stream, 
flowing in first from hell and reacting in man, returns 
again to hell, bearing man with it if he makes no 
resistance. Reacting in him, it becomes the affection 
of falsity, and the pride of intelligence from that affec- 
tion; this is represented by the proud in spirit, who 
are rich in their own eyes, but miserably poor in the 
presence of the Lord, and this because they believe that 
they live from themselves and not from Him. Their 
life is infernal life, the life which is called " death " in 



39 



the Word. They are disjoined, cut off, from the source 
of life. 

In the second blessing, also, we find the two streams 
coming into opposition and collision. There are those 
of the church who mourn over the perverted state of 
the church, and there are those who do not; there are 
those who grieve over their own evils, and there are 
those who do not. These latter grieve indeed, but 
over natural calamities, the loss of the things of this 
world. 

Again in the third blessing we see the two streams 
in opposition. There are those who in their hearts are 
yielding and submissive to the Lord and His Provi- 
dence, but firm against the afflux and entrance of the 
life from the world; and there are those who are hard 
of heart, rigid, unyielding to the influx of the Lord 
and the life of heaven, but who yield, succumb with- 
out resistance, to the afflux of the life of the world. 
These are spoken of in the Writings; and especially 
of those who are in faith without charity, it is said that 
their internal state is " hard and resisting, and rejects 
all influx from the Lord " ; but that those who are in 
charity and faith together are, in their internal, " yield- 
ing and soft, and receive influx " from the Lord. (A . C. 
8321.) The former are outwardly in the things of the 
church, outwardly meek and pious, but there is in 
their spirits anything but a state of piety and meek- 
ness, anything but charity and good will to the Lord 
and to the neighbor. 

So it is throughout the Blessings,— the opposite 
stream appearing more fully in the latter part of them, 
because of the greater activity of the assault upon the 
life of the church that is there represented. 

The two streams are in men and spirits. The two 
streams are in the church in this world, and in the 
world of spirits. For it is to be noted that the subject 



40 



is concerning those who are in the same doctrine, but 
not in the same life, thus who are in opposition as to 
life; concerning those who receive the doctrine of 
revelation into the understanding and at the same time 
into life, or into the love which is the life, and con- 
cerning those also who receive the doctrine into the 
understanding, but not at the same time into the life. 
These two classes of persons are separated in the final 
judgment; but until then, they are together in the 
doctrine of the church. This is what is meant by the 
words of the Lord in Luke, when treating of the judg- 
ment, " I tell you, in that night there shall be two men 
in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other left." 
(17: 34.) By "bed" is signified doctrine. Those 
who are in the truth of doctrine, and at the same time 
in the good of life, will be taken into heaven when 
the judgment comes; but those who are in the truth of 
doctrine, and not at the same time in the good of life, 
will not be, and cannot be, taken into heaven in the 
time of the judgment. These two classes are in view 
in the series of the Blessings; and we learn from this 
fact that the opposite is always present — present until 
the judgment comes, and then it is present no longer. 
It is present so long as man lives in the world, and 
so long as he is in the world of spirits. During this 
time there are always the " two who are in the same 
bed," and they must needs be together until the day 
of final reckoning. Then the " one shall be taken and 
the other left." 

In the world of spirits there are societies of spirits 
who are being prepared for heaven; into these societies 
evil spirits also enter, and they are able to enter be- 
cause they are in the outward profession of faith in the 
doctrine of the church; otherwise they would not be 
received. Like the tares and the wheat, they cannot 
be distinguished and separated until the time of the 



41 



harvest. They are together in the true doctrine of 
heaven, but not in its life; and because they are not 
at one in the life of heavenly doctrine, the good are 
infested, and mourn over the presence of evil with 
them; but they do not as yet know its source, from 
whence it comes, nor from whom it comes. They are 
in one bed, and the good are not yet taken and the evil 
left. 

The man of the church on earth — the regenerating 
man of the church — is inserted as to his spirit into these 
societies which are preparing for heaven. On this ac- 
count he experiences in his interior life the active 
states of those societies. He is happy in their states of 
uplifting, and is depressed, miserable, and grieves in 
their states of infestation, the source of which he 
knows not. A striking truth here appears, which is 
that the regenerating man of the church on earth is 
infested as to his spirit by those in the other world 
who are in the outward profession of the faith which 
he believes and loves. They are together in the same 
bed, and it may be a long time before the fulfilment 
of the promise that " one shall be taken and the other 
left." 

These two states are also represented in the church 
on earth, — states where the opposites are together, — 
where the opposites are together by virtue of the con- 
fession of a common doctrine, but where there is at 
the same time internal collision because the life, or the 
life's love, is not in common but opposite. For there 
are those who are in the outward profession of doc- 
trine, and who at the same time love it for its own 
sake; and there are those who are also in the outward 
profession of doctrine, but who do not love it for its 
own sake, but for the sake of themselves and the 
world. These two states are altogether opposite. The 
church is in constant danger from this state, — from 



42 



those who outwardly adhere to the doctrine of the 
church, but who in their interior life are in opposition 
to it ; and if this state should predominate, the church 
would be destroyed, as has been the case with all the 
churches of the past. 

There is this, however, to be said; namely, that in 
the church on earth, some may be in a state of in- 
ward opposition to the life of the church, and yet not 
remain in that state, but may pass out of it by a 
life of repentance. There is also this to be said, that 
all men are at first in this state of opposition to the 
Lord and the life of heaven, because the natural, 
where evils reside and predominate, is that which is 
first active in every man; and even the regenerating 
man is prone to lapse into this state of opposition, and 
to make himself for a time the subject of spirits who 
are actively hostile to the life which is from the Lord. 
This state of opposition continues longer with some 
than with others; it is harder for some than for others 
to submit in their interior thought and will to the life 
which flows in from the Lord; it is more difficult for 
some than for others to come into a state of spiritual 
meekness, into a state of internal submission to the 
ways of the Lord's merciful Providence. The state of 
stubbornness and hardness of heart therefore continues 
longer with some than with others; and with some it 
remains forever. 

As we have seen, the opposite is made present in the 
church, in this world and in the other, by the accept- 
ance of the doctrine of the church by those who are in 
internal states opposed to its life, — either in a tem- 
porary or a permanent opposition. No otherwise can 
the evil in the spiritual world be present in the socie- 
ties of the good than by the profession of the faith, 
by the acceptance of the doctrine of those societies. 
So it is in the church on earth; there could be no 



43 



presence of that which is opposite unless there were 
at the same time the profession and acceptance of the 
truth of the church; by means of this truth it can make 
itself present, causing grief, infestation, temptation. 
And this is of use. This is the use intended of Provi- 
dence by the presence of the opposite in the church or 
in the man of the church, — the use of infestation, fer- 
mentation'* temptation. For there is no spiritual 
growth without temptation, and there is no tempta- 
tion unless the opposite be present. And if we can 
suppose a church without those in it who are in a 
permanent internal opposition, still the Lord will pro- 
vide or permit the opposite to be excited even in those 
who have something of spiritual life in their internal, 
as in the case of Judas, who betrayed his Lord and 
yet was saved after death. 

It does not concern us to know who are in perma- 
nent opposition, and who are not. We could not know 
if we would. We are not to know while we are in this 
world. After death we shall know, even as we are 
known. But in this world, in the church, we may 
know of the presence of the opposite in ourselves and 
in others; and we may know the use which this is to 
perform, — the use of infestation, the use of fermenta- 
tion, the use of temptation, by which a state of in- 
ternal meekness is formed and established; a state 
of internal submissiveness and obedience to the Lord; 
a state of internal patience, gentleness, and charity; a 
state of rational and spiritual good, which, as we are 
taught, " never fights, however it is assailed; because 
it is mild and gentle, patient and yielding; for its 
character is that of love and mercy." (A. C. 1950.) 
This love, this mercy, is the presence of the Lord in 
the internal man. Standing there in the midst of the 
angels, He invites us to come unto Him, even as He 
said while on earth, " Come unto me, all ye that labor 



44 



and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my 
yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and 
lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." 
(Matt, ii : 28-30.) Amen. 

Lessons: Numbers 12. Matthew 11: 16-30. A. C. 7298; or 

H. H. 359 5 N. J. H. D. 72, 74. 
Music: Liturgy, pp. 505, 529, 546, 571, 604, 639. .Hymnal, 

pp. 133, 168, 181. 
Prayers: Liturgy, nos. 157, 158. .Hymnal, nos. 14, 17. 



THE TEN BLESSINGS. 



FOURTH SERMON. 

"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after 
justice; for they shall be filled" (Matthew 5: 6.) 

The miracles of the Lord when He was in the world 
Hvere mostly miracles of healing and miracles of feed- 
ing, and He thereby represented in a natural manner 
before the eyes of men the spiritual work which He 
came to perform. Spiritual pestilence and spiritual 
famine universally prevailed. Men were sick with 
spiritual disease, and were deprived of the bread of 
life which should be provided for the nourishment of 
their souls. The Lord removed the spiritual pesti- 
lence, and brought back the bread of life to men, by 
waging spiritual war against those who were the cause 
of the misery of mankind, against the authors of the 
spiritual diseases which afflicted men, against those 
who had given stones to eat instead of bread, and 
serpents instead of fishes. The work by which He 
accomplished this is called redemption, 4 which He ac- 
complished in the spiritual world, by" which He cast 
the evil into hell and brought deliverance to the good, 
introducing them into heaven. Then began the Divine 
process of the establishment of a new spiritual church, 
which should endure forever as the means of salvation 
unto men. 

When men are sick they are not hungry, they have 
no appetite for food. The first thing in restoration 
to health, therefore, is deliverance from the causes of 
the disease, in order that a normal hunger and a nor- 



45 



46 



mal appetite may be restored, so that the body may 
receive the nourishment it needs, and, by restoration 
to health, return to the orderly courses of its life. 
Hunger and thirst for food and drink, a sound appe- 
tite, are a sign of returning health, are a sign that the 
tissues of the body are to be rebuilded, that the body 
is to recover, that the man is to return to the per- 
formance of his daily calling and function among his 
fellow men. 

The Lord, as the Divine Healer, as the Physician 
of souls, in order to restore spiritual appetite to men, 
must needs heal their spiritual diseases and set them 
on the road to health. This He did by the universal 
work of redemption to which we have referred. Evil 
spirits who infested every man coming into the world 
and going out of the world, were themselves sick — 
sick with incurable disease. They had spread con- 
tagion everywhere. It was necessary, therefore, that 
they should be removed from the presence of men, or 
there could be no restoration to sound health of mind 
and body, no chance of a cure for the spiritual ills of 
mankind. This the Lord accomplished, and this He 
represented by the miracles of healing which He per- 
formed when He walked among men. 

The Lord came as the Healer, the Restorer, the 
Savior of me i; and it is remarkable that the words 
save, savior, and salvation, are derived from a root 
signifying " to heal." The word salt comes from the 
same origin, salt being that which saves or preserves 
the food that we eat. And salt is the first thing men- 
tioned by the Lord in the Sermon on the Mount after 
the Blessings were given. He then said to His dis- 
ciples, " Ye are the salt of the earth," signifying that 
in them was represented that which was to be the 
saving principle of mankind, because in them was 
represented a true internal or spiritual church, by 



47 



which all men were to be saved who could be saved, 
by which all men were to be restored to health who 
could be healed. 

The whole series of the internal sense of the Sermon 
on the Mount leads up to this point, namely, the 
establishment of an internal or spiritual church, which 
was to be the saving principle among men, in which 
the Savior Himself was to be present, performing His 
Divine work of healing or salvation. When we speak 
of an internal or spiritual church, it is important to 
understand that it is formed of those who are internal 
or spiritual men, and that the process by which a 
spiritual church is established is one and the same 
with the process by which the individual man is re- 
generated; and that which in the Word treats of the 
one treats at the same time of the other, the only 
difference being as the difference between that which 
is general and that which is particular or individual. 
The church in general is formed of a number of indi- 
vidual men who are churches in particular. The one 
does not exist without the other, and this twofold 
establishment is what is described in the Blessings. 

It is also important to understand, in this connec- 
tion, that every man has an internal and an external 
of thought and affection, or an external and an internal 
of understanding and will, or an external and an in- 
ternal mind. By mind, here, we mean the natural 
mind. The natural mind is internal and external. 
The external of thought and affection, or the external 
mind, is that by which a man accommodates himself 
to the life of the world, which he does when he is in 
the company of others; but the internal of thought 
and affection, or the internal mind, is that in which a 
man is when he thinks in himself when he is alone, or 
not in the company of others. It is well known that 
any man can speak and act contrary to what he thinks 



4 8 



and wills, as in the case of hypocrites — a proof that 
there is an external and an internal of the natural 
mind. 

The internal of the natural mind is the man himself, 
but the external is merely the man as he appears or 
wishes to appear to others. It is in this internal, 
therefore, that the essential work of repentance and 
regeneration are to take place, and in which is the 
essential life of the church. For it is here that evil 
spirits have their abode — in the evils that are active 
there. It is also in this internal that the Divine doc- 
trine is to be received; and it is received there when 
a man believes it in sincerity of heart, and is affected 
by it because it points out the way to heaven and the 
Lord. This interior reception of doctrine from the 
Lord is what is treated of in the Blessings from begin- 
ning to end. In their internal sense, they treat of the 
gradual and progressive regeneration of the individual 
man of the church, and, at the same time, of the pro- 
gressive establishment of the church in general, — all 
of which is effected by doctrine, and by a life accord- 
ing to it, and must be effected while man still lives 
in the world of nature. 

The story of the successive regeneration of the 
church, or of the individual, is the story of the suc- 
cessive reception of doctrine given by revelation from 
the Lord, and of the mode and manner of its recep- 
tion. And, what is remarkable, the same story, ac- 
cording to the law of opposites is the story of the suc- 
cessive rejection of the doctrine of revelation, and 
thus the successive degeneration of those who would 
be of the church, but who are not willing to obey, in 
their internal man, the law which the doctrine of truth 
reveals. 

The " poor in spirit " are they who receive the truth 
in a humble heart, and are spiritually affected by its 



49 



precepts of doctrine and life. But the rich or proud 
in spirit are they who receive and outwardly profess 
the doctrine of the church, but who are not inwardly 
affected by its truth, and continue proud, as before. 

They who receive the truth in heart grieve inwardly 
when they perceive that the truth is not received by 
others, who indeed may outwardly profess it, but who 
are not concerned about its acceptance in heart and 
life. The former " mourn " over the state of the 
church, but the latter are not disturbed or grieved by 
a lack of spiritual life, for they are concerned only 
about the worldly prosperity of the church, not about 
its spiritual uplifting. 

The third state is represented by the " meek," who 
are internally submissive to the truth as coming from 
the Lord, and are in spiritual good. In opposition 
to their state are those who do not bow internally 
before the truth, but yield only to the life of the world 
and are in merely natural good. 

A fourth state now comes into view, — a state of 
spiritual hunger and thirst for the good of life 
which the truth of doctrine reveals. In the state 
represented by the " meek/' there is marked the 
beginning of a new will in the internal man; but 
now there is presented to our view the beginning 
of both a new will and a new understanding, signified 
by the words " hunger and thirst." I They who are in 
charity must also be in faith; they who are in the 
affection of good must also be in the affection of 
truth. These are they that " hunger and thirst after 
justice," or for the good of life which the truth of 
doctrine reveals. There are those in the church who 
have spiritual appetite and desire, and there are also 
those present, by virtue of the outward profession ot 
doctrine, who have no appetite and desire for the 
spiritual truth of doctrine, no desire for the life which 



5° 



is called " justice." The former receive the truth, and 
appropriate it; the latter receive it, indeed, but do not 
appropriate it in heart and life. The two classes are 
together because of a common profession of faith in 
the doctrine of revelation, and remain together until 
the judgment, when " the one shall be taken and the 
other left." 

The process of the establishment of a spiritual 
church is the continuing process of the Lord's uni- 
versal work of redemption, and, at the same time, the 
continuing process of His universal work of judgment, 
or the process of the separation of the good from the 
evil, the separation of those who from the heart desire 
the truth revealed from heaven and its good, — their 
separation from those who have no such desire, and to 
whom no such desire can be imparted, because they 
cannot be led to love the truth for its own sake. When 
the time of separation comes, it is said to the one 
class: " Blessed are ye that do hunger and thirst after 
justice; for ye shall be filled." And to the other it is 
said: "Cursed are ye that do not hunger and thirst 
after justice; for ye cannot be filled." The one class 
is conjoined with God, and the other is disjoined, 
separated from God — a permanent conjunction, and a 
permanent separation. 

The one thing needful in the restoration of the body 
to health, when it has been in a state of sickness and 
disease, is the excitation or stirring into activity of the 
appetite for food, to bring back a healthy appetite for 
nourishment, a healthy hunger and a healthy thirst. 
So it is in the spiritual body of the church. If there 
can be stirred in it a healthy appetite for the spiritual 
things of the Word, it is a sign of returning health, 
and gives a bright and happy promise of future spirit- 
ual increase. For the growth of the spirit corresponds 
to the growth of the body, and the processes of resto- 



Si 



ration to health correspond in every particular. Let 
us, therefore, examine briefly into the growth of the 
body, that we may, as by a reflected light, behold the 
growth of the spirit. 

We read in the Heavenly Doctrine that it is neces- 
sary for man to be born in the world of nature, and to 
have a body formed from the kingdoms of nature; 
that he should live in such a body for a time, longer or 
shorter, as the case may be; and the reason given for 
this is, that the life of the spirit may become fixed and 
permanent upon a basis of the hard and concrete ulti- 
mates of nature; and that, upon this basis, formed 
and fixed by life in the natural world, he may be pre- 
pared to live a permanent and immortal life in a world 
above or within the world of nature. This is the rea- 
son why every angel in heaven, and every devil in hell, 
was once a man born in the world, who, after a life 
spent in the world, passed into the spiritual world, 
there to live forever. 

The body, after it has performed this function of 
fixing and rendering permanent and enduring the life 
of the spirit, is laid aside at death, and is never more 
resumed. Having performed this use, the body is 
cast off as a garment, worn out, and no longer of , 
service to the man, now a spirit in the spiritual world. 
As an inhabitant of the spiritual world he is a com- 
plete man, no longer in need of a material body such 
as he had, and such as was necessary to him, while in 
the natural world. But the Doctrine also teaches 
that, although the gross material body, which is visible 
to the senses, is rejected at death, not all that is called 
the body is laid aside or left behind. Man, when he 
asses into the spiritual world, retains or carries with 
im something from the natural world, which remains 
with him as the cutaneous envelope of his spirit, which 
holds and contains the life of his spirit, even as the 



52 



skins and coverings of the body hold together and con- 
tain the life of the body, — the blood and the other 
bodily fluids.* This cutaneous envelope or covering of 
the spirit is not formed of the gross material sub- 
stances of nature, but of its purer substances, — sub- 
stances which are invisible to the senses. This in- 
visible body remains in the inmost sphere of nature as 
the covering of the spirit, and by it a man continues 
forever in touch with nature, with the things that are 
in nature, and with men who are living in the natural 
world. Those who have passed over to the other side 
of the curtain or veil that has been drawn are thus 
still with us, though unseen by our natural eyes, their 
presence unperceived by our natural senses, yet in- 
timately in touch with every heart throb of our bodily 
life. 

Now, in order that we may continue after birth to 
exist in the natural world, during the period of our 
natural life; in order that we may continue to live 
during our allotted period in the world of nature, it is 
necessary that our bodies, both visible and invisible, 
be nourished from the kingdoms of nature. It is 
necessary that the body be continually renewed, and 
its waste restored, from the things of nature, both 
visible and invisible, provided for its food; and in 
order that the body may seek and perpetually provide 
for itself its sustenance from nature, the Lord has im- 
planted in us what we call hunger, and with hunger 
He has implanted thirst; for the solid substances of 
nature cannot be taken in and assimilated to the life 
of the body without conjunction with the fluids of 
nature. Without this implanted hunger and thirst, 
we could not be impelled or induced to seek the food 
of our life. Man would die as soon as he is born. 
And therefore the child is born hungry and thirsty, 
and immediately begins to seek the food necessary to 



S3 



sustain its life, from an implanted appetite that con- 
tinues to the last hour of its life, when not interrupted 
by sickness or disease. 

This implanted appetite, which prompts the body 
to seek its food, is both conscious and unconscious, 
both voluntary and involuntary. The deliberate ef- 
fort in seeking food has more in it than is apparent to 
the senses. It reaches beyond the domain of studied 
and deliberate effort. We are eating and drinking 
when we know it not. There is invisible food, as well 
as visible. The food which we eat by conscious en- 
deavor is provided on our tables, and comes from the 
mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms. We eat, 
drink, and enjoy it, and thank God for it, if so be 
there is a heart of thankfulness in us. But there is 
another kingdom of nature, a fourth kingdom, which 
is universal in the other three, — the kingdom of the 
auras or atmospheres, called the elementary kingdom. 
This kingdom is largely invisible to the senses, but it 
contains an immense store, an immense ocean of sub- 
stances for the nourishment of the body. We are 
eating and drinking of this kingdom every moment, 
whether we sleep or whether we wake — an eating and 
a drinking that requires no direct effort of our own, 
or almost none. With every incoming breath, the 
blood drinks in by the lungs from the oxygen of the 
air The animal spirit, or purer blood, drinks in 
every moment through the pores of the skin from the 
immense, unlimited stores with which the ether 
abounds; and so on all the way up to the universal 
atmosphere, which has its origin in the spiritual sun 
itself. The appetite implanted in the interiors of the 
body for the ethereal food of the elementary kingdom, 
we are scarcely aware of; but it is present, potent, 
and perpetually active, perpetually seeking and striv- 
ing for its food. This food from the elementary king- 



54 



dom is the chief source of the health of the body, the 
chief sustenance of its interior invisible life. 

Hunger and thirst, or appetite, is implanted by the 
Lord, that by means of it the body may be created 
and preserved. It is implanted before birth, and acts 
invisibly in the pre-natal life for the creation of the 
body, — mediately by the blood of the mother, and 
immediately from the kingdom of the auras. It acts 
after birth, and it is granted to man then to aid its 
invisible operation by his own conscious effort in pro- 
curing for himself food and drink. 

Hunger and thirst, or appetite, is nothing else than 
love or desire. It is the love of the bodily life, 
prompting the desire and effort to maintain the body, 
prompting us to eat and drink, that the life of the 
body may be sustained. The Lord implants in us this 
love of bodily life, that the body may live and per- 
form the use for which it was created, that man may 
live in this world for a time and in the other world 
forever and there perform the use for which he was 
created. 

There is, however, an appetite not inherent by birth, 
but which is implanted by the Lord after man is born, 
of which it is now necessary for us to speak. In the 
text, the Lord tells us of an appetite for justice. 
" Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after 
justice; for they shall be filled." 

It is necessary to know what justice is, and how an 
appetite or desire for it is acquired. This is necessary 
to know, for the Lord tells us about it, and when He 
teaches in His Word concerning anything, it is a sign 
that there is something for us to do, in order to obtain 
that which He is teaching; and, indeed, there is some- 
thing for us to do in order that He may implant in us 
a love of justice. 

Now what is justice? and what is it to be just? 



55 



What is the state in which a man is when it is said of 
him that he loves justice? A love of justice exists 
where one loves that which is right and true in itself, 
without regard to selfish or worldly considerations; 
without regard to fear, favor, or natural inclination. 
It exists where there is a wish and a desire to find the 
right and follow it, and which causes what is right and 
just to determine the course to be pursued, allowing 
no other consideration to decide what is to be thought 
and what is to be done in any given case that calls 
for judgment or for action. In other words, justice 
is what is called in the Writings the " good of life," in 
which a man is who has received the truth and loves 
it for its own sake, thus making it the standard and 
rule of his life. 

There are degrees of justice, however, as there are 
degrees of every good. 

First, justice is civil good, or the good of the civil 
state, the good that is provided for by the civil law 
and its administration, and, at the same time, by the 
obedience of the citizen or individual member of the 
state to the civil law. 

Second, justice is moral good, or the good of the 
moral state or kingdom, the good that is provided for 
by the observance and keeping of the moral law, as 
given in the letter of the Ten Commandments. 

Third, justice is spiritual good, or the good of the 
spiritual state or kingdom of the Lord on earth, — a 
kingdom where no earthly potentate rules, where 
society is not the master or mistress, but where the 
Lord alone reigns as King; where men keep the civil 
law, and the moral law, and the spiritual law, because 
it is all from the Lord, and not from man. This king- 
dom is the Church. 

Fourth, justice is celestial good, the good of heaven 
itself, especially the good of the supreme heaven, 



56 



where the Lord is the all in all. They come into this 
good who love the Lord above all things and the 
neighbor more than themselves. 

Fifth, justice is the very Divine Good, which the 
Lord acquired to Himself by the glorification of His 
Human when He was in the world. He made Himself 
justice — for justice was nearly gone from the earth — 
and thus He is able to justify every man who believes 
in Him and lives according to the precepts of His 
Word. 

We have shown that every man is born with a love 
of his own corporeal good, or with a love of providing 
for the good of his body, and that he immediately sets 
to work to satisfy his bodily appetites. The first of 
these is hunger, and with it thirst. W 7 e have also said 
that no man is born with a love of justice or good in 
any of its degrees, but this is implanted in him by the 
Lord after birth. The bodily appetites or loves, there- 
fore, man inherits from his parents; but the love of 
justice, and of all that is involved in the idea of 
justice, is received from the Lord as our Father in 
heaven. This receiving of the gift of all spiritual and 
celestial good from our Heavenly Father is the new 
birth or regeneration. 

The Lord implants these gifts in man when he lives 
in obedience to the laws of Divine Order, — when he 
lives in obedience to the laws of the state, when he 
lives in obedience to the moral law, when he lives in 
obedience to the spiritual law, or the precepts of doc- 
trine from the Word. For reaction is necessary, that 
there may be conjunction. All things in the spiritual 
world and all things in the natural world, all things in 
the mind and all things in the body, are forms result- 
ing from the union of two forces, the force of action 
and the force of reaction. The regeneration of man is 
no exception to this law. God acts and man reacts, 



57 



and the result is that man is conjoined with God, is 
reborn, and the spiritual gifts of love are implanted 
in him; he is saved, and becomes an angel of heaven. 

The reaction is also from the Lord. The Lord pro- 
vides reaction by means of the world of nature, — by 
afflux from the world of nature. By influx from God 
and afflux from nature, a mind is formed after birth, — 
a will and an understanding; in this mind, freedom is 
an essential characteristic. The Lord then teaches 
this human mind the laws of His Word, the laws of 
justice, the laws of civil and moral good, the laws of 
spiritual and celestial good. By these laws, by obe- 
dience to these laws, man reacts with God, is born 
anew, is regenerated and saved; he is made into the 
image of God, a form that lives forever. 

The gifts of love that are implanted in man by 
reaction with God become in him a spiritual hunger 
and thirst, a hunger and thirst after the justice of 
God. He hungers and he thirsts — two things. They 
are two, yet one, for they go together and act together. 
This involves that there are two things desired, two 
things sought after — justice and the law of justice. 
The law is truth, the law is wisdom, and justice is 
good. Wisdom and justice are two, and yet they are 
one, even as the law of God is one with the justice of 
God. These are never separated. Hence they are 
expressed by one term in the text — justice. Wherever 
there is justice, there is law or wisdom. What is 
justice in the civil state without wise administration, 
or administration according to law? What is moral 
good without a knowledge of its laws and a wise ap- 
plication of them to moral conditions? What is spir- 
itual good without the spiritual laws of wisdom re- 
vealed in the Word? So it is on every plane of human 
life. Justice and wisdom, good and truth, are one and 
inseparable. Man desires both, seeks for both, when 



58 

love has been implanted in him by God, his Creator. 
There is nothing he then so much desires as wisdom 
and its good, which is justice. 

In the Word of God, the desire for truth or wisdom 
is called thirst, and the desire for good or justice is 
called hunger. This is notable in the text, and in 
many other passages of Scripture. Men speak of a 
thirst for knowledge; and knowledge is wisdom when 
it is applied to the uses of life, when it is used in the 
search for the justice of God. The man who seeks it 
from the heart acquires it, and he is blessed in the 
acquisition. To be blessed is to be introduced as to 
his spirit into heaven while he yet lives in the world; 
to be blessed is to be conjoined with God by reaction 
with God while he is still a man among men. 

Now the teaching of the text is that they who 
hunger and thirst after justice shall be filled. The 
same teaching is given elsewhere, as in the Psalm, 
" He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry 
soul with good," (117: 9); and in Luke, "He hath 
filled the hungry soul with good, and the rich He hath 
sent away empty." (1: 53.) To "fill," in these and 
other passages of the Word, means to have all that 
one desires. This is indeed true of those who " hunger 
and thirst after justice," or the good of heaven. They 
shall have all that they desire. This is the state of 
the angels of heaven. Whatever they desire or wish 
for is immediately given them by the Lord. This 
would not be good for us in this world of preparation 
and probation; but there is no unsatisfied desire in 
heaven. And this happy state is promised to all who 
hunger and thirst for the things which are of God. In 
order that this state may be reached, however, there 
is much to be removed from the life of man, and it 
means incessant and continual war so long as man 
lives in the world. 



59 



As we have seen in the series of the Blessings, the 
first thing in the order of time is to make war with 
the conceit of our own intelligence. If this be re- 
moved, all the rest will be easy. For self-conceit, 
especially self-conceit in the things of religion, is the 
poison of the human mind. It is the great destroyer 
of human spiritual life. It is the serpent in Eden; it 
is the dragon of the Apocalypse. This is what has 
consummated the church, and brought spiritual deso- 
lation and ruin to the human race. This is the reason 
a Second Coming is necessary, that salvation may be 
brought back to men; and this is the reason it is said, 
"Except those days be shortened, no flesh can be 
saved." But now the Lord has come, and in His 
coming is fulfilled the prophecy, " Behold the days 
come, saith the Lord God, that I will send hunger in 
the land, not a hunger for bread, nor a thirst for 
water, but of hearing the words of the Lord." (Amos 
8: ii.) The Lord has come, and the invitation is 
given to all men to come unto Him, even as we read, 
" The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him 
that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst 
come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of 
life freely." (Rev. 22: 17.) Amen. 

Lessons: Isaiah 29:7-24. Matthew 25:31-46; A. C. 6078, or 

H. H. 420, or T. C. R. 95, 96. 
Music: Liturgy, p. 504, 516, 603, 618. Hymnal, p. 134, 141, 

168, 169. 

Prayers: Liturgy, nos. 122, 125. Hymnal, nos. 4 and 5. 



THE TEN BLESSINGS. 



FIFTH SERMON. 

"Blessed are the merciftd; for they shall obtain 
mercy! 9 (Matthew 5:7.) 

In order to understand the words of the text, it is 
necessary to know something of the environment or 
conditions in which they were uttered by the Lord. 
For all He said to His disciples had in view the actual 
states of men, and involved the reasons for His com- 
ing into the world, the reasons why the God of the 
universe had made Himself manifest and visible to 
men, why He had come to sojourn among them as one 
of them. 

If all men had been merciful, if the element of mercy 
had been dominant in human life, there would have 
been no need for the Lord to come and make Himself 
manifest in a body of material flesh and blood. But 
because mercy was almost absent as a factor in the 
relations of men with each other, it was necessary that 
He who was Mercy Itself should come and exercise 
mercy, and thus restore that which had been lost; for 
without the quality of mercy, human life is impossible 
in the association of men with each other. And the 
Lord teaches in the text, and elsewhere, how mercy is 
to be restored. All men are in need of mercy; the 
Lord God of heaven and earth has come to impart it 
unto them; but in order that they may become active 
recipients of this human angelic quality, — this Divine 
principle of life, — they must exercise it toward one an- 
other. "Blessed are the merciful; for they shall ob- 
tain mercy." 

60 



6i 



By "blessing" in the Word, and being blessed, is 
signified to receive eternal life. Only the angels of 
heaven are blessed, because they alone live. Those 
who are shut out of heaven, who shut themselves out 
of heaven, are not blessed. They cut themselves off 
from blessing and the source of blessing. They con- 
tinue to exist, but they cannot be said to live; for only 
those live, and are blessed in living, who conjoin 
themselves with God and consociate with their fellow 
men, who love to be conjoined with God and love to 
consociate with their fellow man. All such are blessed, 
all such live, all such are in heaven after death. 

Hell is not life, the internals do not live, no one in 
hell is blessed, because everyone there is disjoined from 
God, and strives against consociation with his neighbor, 
except so far as the neighbor can be subjugated and 
compelled to serve the activities of his self-love. There 
is no life in hell because there is no love with those 
who are in hell, nothing to conjoin one with another; 
and because there is no love, there is no mercy. All 
mercy is of love, is the exercise of love towards those 
who are in need of the ministration of mercy; and all 
men are in need of this heavenly ministration. The 
Lord also pointed out to His disciples that there is no 
way for anyone to receive the ministrations of mercy 
but for himself to enter into the active exercise of it 
towards others. But there is no mercy in hell, or 
among evil spirits towards each other. Cruelty there 
takes the place of mercy; for the law is the same in 
things that are opposite. They who are cruel and 
vindictive will have cruelty and vengeance visited upon 
them. As ye give, so shall ye receive. This law is 
operative in heaven, in hell, and in the world. There 
is no escape from it. As ye give, so shall ye receive; 
as ye visit upon others, so shall it be visited upon you. 

In the Golden Age, the conditions of heaven were 
the conditions of the world. Love and mercy were 



62 



active principles of human life. But at the time of the 
Lord's coming, these heavenly principles no longer 
prevailed among men. The conditions of hell had 
become the conditions of the world. Men were no 
longer in a state of blessing, because hatred had taken 
the place of love; cruelty and revenge were every- 
where the practice in men's relations with each other. 
Men even justified themselves in being cruel and vin- 
dictive; they had forgotten that the only way to the 
mercy which they so much needed, and which every 
man craves in his soul because he needs it, is for the 
individual himself to begin by being merciful to 
others. 

There is no man who does not at times feel the 
need of mercy; there is no man who does not at times 
pray for mercy; and the Lord comes down from 
heaven, and says unto him, even as He said to His 
disciples on the mountain: Be merciful, and ye shall 
receive mercy. Ye feel the need of mercy; therefore 
exercise it, in order to receive it. If mercy flows forth 
out of you into the world, it will flow down into you 
from heaven, and it will flow back from the world 
unto you again. The universal law of creation has no 
exception, that influx accommodates itself to efflux; 
where there is a going forth, there will also be a re- 
turn; in other words, where there is action, there will 
also be reaction; as ye visit upon others, so shall it be 
visited to you again. Influx is from the Lord; efflux 
is towards the neighbor, and reflux is a return again 
from the neighbor. For it is a law of all creation that 
where there is a going forth, there is also and always 
a return. As we give forth, so shall we receive back 
again; as we give, so shall we receive by influx from 
the Lord; and as we give, so shall we receive by re- 
flux from the neighbor. 

This law of efflux and reflux became, in the Ancient 
Church, what is called the law of retaliation. The 



63 



word retaliation signifies requital, reprisal, retribu- 
tion, paying back, returning upon another what he has 
brought upon us, giving back like for like; and in the 
ancient law it was " a punishment similar and equal to 
the injury sustained," which was also called retaliation 
in kind. This law became a rigid statute of the 
Mosaic code, well suited to the genius of the Israelitish 
people, with whom justice was but another name for 
vengeance, even though it was exercised under the 
forms of law. " An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a 
tooth," was the requirement, a justice not tempered 
with mercy. But the Lord taught His disciples that, 
while they were to "hunger and thirst for justice," 
they were not to hunger and thirst for vengeance; and 
thus, after teaching them concerning the law of justice, 
that it is to be desired above all things, He immedi- 
ately follows with the law of mercy, in order that they 
might know that the justice which is inspired by re- 
venge, and sought for the sake of vengeance, is not the 
justice of God, but a justice having its origin in a 
kingdom where a cruel retaliation is visited for all 
offences, and where the law is fulfilled that the un- 
merciful cannot receive mercy. 

The law of retaliation, which is the law of strict, 
rigid and cruel justice, justice without mercy, is the 
direct opposite of the law which reigns in heaven, 
which is the law of mutual love. The law of mutual 
love is the law of efflux and reflux, under the operation 
of which the angels are consociated together, conjoined 
together as one. This is especially the law of marriage 
in heaven. With every angelic couple, there is an 
efflux of love from each to the other, and a reflux of 
love from each to the other, by which they are joined 
together in a perpetual and never ending union of heart 
and mind, of body and soul, so that each may say of 
the other, as Adam said of his wife, " This one is 



64 



bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh." A union 
which God has joined together , and which man cannot 
divorce or tear asunder. But where the law of retalia- 
tion reigns, and a rigid and vindictive justice is visited 
upon all, and is exacted and required of all, where 
justice is insisted upon to the exclusion of mercy, there 
can be no union of souls, no mutual love, no reciprocal 
efflux and reflux, no truly human life, no influx from 
God, no blessedness by conjunction with God, no 
eternal felicity in consociation with men. For only 
those who give mercy and love can receive the same 
from the fount of mercy. 

The Lord, therefore, when He came into the world, 
abolished the representation of the infernal law of 
retaliation for injuries sustained, and decreed that the 
law of mutual love should be represented instead; and 
it can be said with truth that this is the burden of His 
teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. Early in the 
Divine discourse we find the teaching, expressed first 
in the words of the text, " Blessed are the merciful; for 
they shall obtain mercy." They that give forth mercy 
shall receive mercy; they shall receive it both by the 
influx of mercy from God, and by the reflux of mercy 
from men. 

In the twentieth verse of the same chapter in which 
the text occurs, the law appears again, " Except your 
justice shall exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, 
ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." 
The justice of the scribes and Pharisees, the justice of 
the world at large, was the justice of revenge, and 
self justification in the exercise of cruelty and revenge 
upon others. In no case can such as these enter into 
the kingdom of heaven, where the supreme law is the 
law of mutual love, and conjunction by mutual love. 
The Lord therefore abolished this law, and its rep- 
resentation in the civil code of nations, in order that 
the way might be prepared for the perpetual reign of 
the kingdom of heaven on earth. 



65 



As soon as the Lord spake to His disciples, abolish- 
ing for the Christian Church the law of vindictive 
justice, such as then ruled with the nations of the 
earth, especially with those known as the scribes and 
Pharisees, He immediately adds the teaching that 
anger or revenge, or hatred of the neighbor, is not to 
rule in the dealings of men with each other, that men 
were not to visit wrath one upon another for in- 
juries done, to requite wrath for injuries received, to 
pay back or retaliate wrath for wrath, evil for evil, 
" Ye have heard that it was said by them or old time, 
Thou shalt not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be 
in danger of the judgment; but I say unto you, That 
whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause 
shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever 
shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of 
the council; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall 
be in danger of hell fire." (Matt. 5:21, 22.) In other 
words, he that visits wrath upon another shall have 
wrath visited upon him from hell, the source of wrath; 
and the only escape from it is to be merciful, even as 
our heavenly Father also is merciful, who is kind even 
to the unthankful and the evil. This is not a senti- 
ment, but a law; not a theory, but a fact; and presents 
the only way of escape and refuge to man from the 
influx of the wrath of hell. Be ye merciful, and ye 
shall obtain mercy. 

Later in the same chapter, (5:38-42), the Lord 
teaches more plainly that there is to be in the Chris- 
tian Church no revenge for injuries done. " Ye have 
heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and 
a tooth for a tooth; but I say unto you, That ye resist 
not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on the right 
cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man 
shall sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let 
him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall com- 



66 



pel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him 
that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of 
thee turn not thou away." In these words, the Lord 
presented before His disciples the law of Christian 
good. It is not meant that we are meekly and tamely 
to submit to all indignity and wrong, for neither 
would this be of charity; but there is to be no revenge 
for injuries done; we are not to resist evil with evil 
in return; the old law of retaliation and vindictive 
justice is abolished; evil is to be resisted, not of man, 
but of the Lord; for vengeance belongeth unto Him, 
and He alone can resist evil and remove it far away 
from us. If we resist evil from evil, it will return 
upon us again, and the last case is worse than the first. 

The Lord then delivers the Christian law of retalia- 
tion; for the word retaliation, or talio, was not origin- 
ally used in a bad sense. It simply meant returning 
like for like, and in heaven returning good for good. 
It is the law of mutual love, — of loving, and of being 
loved in return. But in the Christian Church on earth 
men were to begin by returning good for evil; for he 
who does not begin in this way will not reach the 
state in which the angels are, — a state of mutual giv- 
ing and receiving of all things of good and truth, of 
mercy and love. The Lord therefore said to His dis- 
ciples, speaking through them to the Christian Church, 
inculcating the genuine law of Christian good. " Ye 
have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love 
thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto 
you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do 
good to them that hate you, and pray for them which 
despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may 
be the children of your Father in heaven; for He 
maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, 
and sendeth rain on the just and cn the unjust." 
(Matt. 5:43-45.) 



6 7 



This was a new law in the world, a new principle of 
human action; and it is new even now, even in this 
enlightened age of the world; and for the natural man 
it is a hard saying. The natural man is not willing to 
love his enemies; he wishes to resist evil with evil, he 
wishes to retaliate injury for injury. Thus the law 
of Christian good is but little understood; it has taken 
little hold upon the affections of men; it exercises but 
little influence in the activities of the world; it is, in- 
deed, an almost unknown factor in the practical work- 
ing of human life on earth. And because there is but 
little Christian good or genuine charity among men, 
there is scarcely any faith; for where there is no char- 
ity neither is there any faith, since the one does not 
exist without the other. For this reason, the Lord 
has come again into the world, and is establishing a 
new Christian Church, wherein the law of Christian 
good is to be the law of life, by which the kingdom of 
heaven is to come and be established in the world. 

Finally, in the seventh chapter, the third of the 
Sermon on the Mount, the Christian law of retalia- 
tion receives its complete formulation in what is called 
the Golden Rule. "Therefore all things whatsoever ye 
would that men should do to you, do ye even so to 
them; for this is the law and the prophets." (7:12.) 
Here we are taught that the law of Christian good, 
the law of mutual love, is the sum of the Word of 
God, the burden of the law and the prophets, — the 
spirit of the law, the spirit of the Gospel, from first to 
last. "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to 
you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and 
the prophets;" this is the Word of God, this is the 
doctrine of the Church, this is the essence of the true 
Christian religion, the universal law of life for angels 
and for men. 

No man wishes that another should do evil unto 
him; he does not desire injury and wrong at the hand 



68 



of others; so strong is this desire in him, that he at 
once resents it, and perhaps meditates revenge, when 
evil is visited upon him by another. He wishes that 
the neighbor should do good to him; and he wishes to 
enforce or compel others to do good to him. Every 
evil spirit in hell desires good from others; he longs 
for it; he wishes others to love him, and he even 
prays for mercy when he is in misery and distress, 
as when he receives the punishment of revenge at the 
hands of his enemies. This is a universal fact of hu- 
man life. Every man desires good from others, would 
have others love him, and be merciful unto him. And 
the Lord God our Savior, living in the world among 
men, knowing the human heart as no man could know 
it, knowing the needs of human life as men cannot 
know, gives unto men the Christian law of ethics, the 
Christian law of retaliation, the Christian law of 
mutual love, — " As ye would that men should do unto 
you, do ye even so unto them." The standard of our 
doing, of our giving to others, is the standard of what 
we would have them do unto us, and give unto us. As 
ye would have them do to you, do ye even so to them. 
This is the standard; this is the law in heaven. Every 
angel lives according to this law; every angel is con- 
stantly giving what he would wish to receive; and since 
he gives, he also receives. He blesses others, and the 
blessing of others returns upon him. He is merciful 
to others, and mercy flows back upon him. He loves 
others, and is loved by them again. Thus mutual love 
is the spring of angelic life. 

Men, however, apply this law negatively, as it is ap- 
plied in hell. As men do unto you, do ye in like 
manner unto them, whether evil or good. If men do 
evil unto you, then do evil to them in return. If so 
be they do good unto you, then do good to them, but 
wait until they do good unto you before ye do it unto 



6 9 



them. This brings men back to the ancient law of 
retaliation, that men are to render evil for evil, and 
takes them away from the law of Christian good which 
teaches that men are not to resist evil with evil, but 
that they are to resist evil with good, and that the 
very resistance to evil, which is at times necessary, is 
not to be from the evil in them, the evil of revenge, 
but from the love of good. Evil is to be resisted, in- 
deed, but it is to be done from good, that is, from the 
Lord. 

The principle enunciated in the Golden Rule clearly 
indicates that the individual must himself be active, 
and not wait for the action of others. Whatsoever ye 
would that men should do to you, do ye even so to 
them. As influx is prior to efflux, so is efflux prior to 
reflux. What we receive from the Lord we send forth 
in the life of use; and he who receives the efflux of 
our use reacts, and gives back in return of what he 
receives. Action is prior to reaction; and this is just 
what the Golden Rule means in the relation of men 
with each other. Let us state it in this way: As ye 
would have men shun evil toward you, so do ye shun 
evil toward them; as ye would have men refrain from 
injuring you, therefore refrain ye from injuring them; 
as ye would have men do good to you, so do ye do 
good to them; as ye would have men be merciful unto 
you, so be ye merciful unto them. The standard of 
our own action is thus plainly set before us in what we 
would wish others to do unto us. Whatever we may 
wish others to do unto us should become with us an 
active principle of life toward them, and this even 
regardless of their action or their attitude toward us. 
We are not to study their actions, or their attitude, 
and shape ours accordingly. If we do this, we are 
waiting for the action of others ; and in doing this, we 
are making ourselves a passive subject. This is not 



70 



the Golden Rule; this is not the law of mutual love. 
This law requires that the standard which we form 
— which every man forms — for the action of others 
toward him should become his standard of action 
towards them, an active standard toward them, a 
standard that does not wait for their action, but which 
should be the active efflux of his life, regardless of 
their state or mental attitude. If they meditate injury 
or do evil to him, he is not to make this his standard 
of action towards them; for he does not wish them 
to do evil to him; he wishes all men to do goodjx* 
him; therefore let this be his course of action towards 
them. As ye would have men do unto you, do ye 
even so to them. The efflux must precede the reflux, 
for the efflux is the active and the reflux is the re- 
active. If ye would have the reflux, first let there be 
efflux. If ye would receive, first give. If ye would 
have the reaction, first act. As ye would have others 
do, so do ye unto them. 

Every angel in heaven is this kind of active subject. 
He receives from the Lord, he gives to the neighbor, 
and the neighbor responds to his action. There is 
thus with all the angels a constant state of action 
and reaction with each other, a continual efflux and 
reflux. This is the mutual love of heaven, and the 
source and cause of all angelic happiness. For in all 
their action and reaction towards each other, in all 
their efflux and reflux, there is delight, and this is the 
source of happiness in heaven which is perpetual. 

It is the opposite in hell. Every inhabitant of hell 
applies the Golden Rule negatively. There the law is 
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, wound for wound, burning 
for burning, — the return of injury for injury. Every 
evil spirit studies to return upon another the evil 
which the other meditates or practices toward him; 
and the statement of the law there would be, Whatso- 



7i 



ever evil others do to you, do ye even so to them. 
Every evil spirit watches another with the eye of a 
hawk, and shapes his own action toward the other by 
the evil he observes in him. The standard of evil he 
observes in the other toward him, he makes his own 
standard in return; and so the law of mutual love in 
heaven becomes in hell practically this, actually this, 
Whatsoever ye would not that men should do unto 
you, do ye even so to them. We would not have them 
do evil unto us; and notwithstanding this our stand- 
ard for them, we do evil unto them, since they do evil 
unto us. This, for the most part, is also the standard 
of the world at the present time, the negative applica- 
tion of the Golden Rule. Nearly two thousand years 
have elapsed since the giving of this wonderful law 
to men, — the spiritual law, the law of mutual love in 
heaven; and yet men still act according to the old 
law of retaliation, — the negative, the opposite of the 
Golden Rule. 

Men long for mercy, pray for it in their hearts, 
wish others to exercise mercy toward them; but be- 
cause they do not perceive the exercise of mercy in 
others, they will not themselves practise it. But this 
is not to be so in the New Jerusalem, which the Lord 
is now establishing in the world. They who would 
dwell within the walls of that Holy City, must remove 
from their lives all negative application of the Golden 
Rule, and shun as a sin any application of the old law 
of retaliation for injuries done. Revenge is to have no 
part in the city of God; no return of evil for evil; for 
the law of mutual love is to prevail. In that great 
city is to be fulfilled to the life the injunction of the 
Sermon on the Mount, and men are to be rescued 
from damnation, men are to enter heaven in the ful- 
filling of it. For in that great city is now to be ful- 
filled the real spiritual significance of the law, the real 



72 



spiritual meaning that was in view when the Lord 
uttered the words inculcating mercy towards others. 
It was the exercise of mercy over the souls of men, the 
rescue of men from the misery and cruelty of eternal 
damnation, from the cruelty of those who would take 
away the bread of life, who would close heaven and 
open hell to mankind. This was the mercy that the 
disciples were to exercise, and this was the cruelty 
against which they were to wage war, namely, in giv- 
ing to men the genuine spiritual truths of the Word, 
the truths which the Lord had come to give, and which 
false prophets and false priests had taken away from 
men. The lost truths of the Word, by which alone 
men could be saved, were to be restored. The apostles 
were to exercise a compassion for the spiritual miseries 
of mankind. And this mission the New Church is to 
fulfill as it has never been fulfilled before; for the 
Lord has given unto men new truth, and a new power 
in truth, such as was never given before, and thus as 
never before there is to be a spiritual fulfillment of the 
words of the Lord. " Blessed are the merciful, for they 
shall obtain mercy." All who thus bless others will be 
blessed in the doing; untold blessings will return upon 
them, in time and in eternity. Amen. 

Lessons: Numbers 14: 11-25; Luke 10: 25-42; A. C. 587, 

588; or T. C. R. 409-411; or A. R. 762. 
Music: Liturgy, p. 525, 529, 554, 557, 560, 696. Hymnal, p. 

139, 168, 169, 172. 
Prayers: Liturgy, nos. 179, 180. Hymnal, nos. 14, 17. 



THE TEN BLESSINGS. 



SIXTH SERMON. 

"Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see 
God." (Matthew 5: 8.) 

In the progress of regeneration, as described in the 
Blessings, we have now reached the stage which is 
marked by a growth of love and charity, and in con- 
sequence, by an increase of light in the understanding, 
which is the light of illustration. This growth and in- 
crease is what is signified by the pure in heart who 
shall see God. The Lord did not at first speak of the 
pure in heart, but of the poor in spirit; nor did He say 
that these should " see God," but simply that " of such 
is the kingdom of heaven." Those who are poor in 
spirit, that is, who are ignorant of the spiritual truths 
of the Word, and acknowledge their ignorance, are con- 
sidered by the Lord to be of His church as soon as they 
make such acknowledgment. 

But all spiritual development is to follow, — growth 
in charity and faith, in love and in illustration, which 
is effected by means of temptations. They that mourn 
shall be comforted; the meek shall inherit the earth; 
they that hunger and thirst after justice shall be filled; 
the merciful shall obtain mercy; the pure in heart 
shall see God. Love is established in the will, and 
light in the understanding, by the process of spiritual 
purification that has been taking place in the interiors 
of the natural mind, and man is now prepared for the 
great work of regeneration yet to come,— the conquest 
of the external man. When this new state of the 
regenerating man, — this love and this light, — becomes 



73 



74 



collective as well as individual, then may it be said 
that the internal church is established, ready to become 
external also, ready to increase in numbers, in activities 
and in uses. 

Let us not forget that this great work is the result 
of the universal Redemption effected by the Lord when 
He was in the world, and which was represented in the 
healing of the multitudes; and at the same time the 
result of the Glorification of His Human, represented 
by His ascent into the mountain, when He taught His 
disciples. When these two are accomplished, — Re- 
demption and Glorification, — then the Lord is able to 
conjoin himself with the human race, form a church on 
earth, and save all who are willing to cooperate with 
Him in a life of obedience, in a life of repentance. 

In order to understand the Divine work of Redemp- 
tion, it is necessary to have a knowledge of the imagi- 
nary or seeming heavens, filled by the evil masquerad- 
ing as angels of light, and to know that the essential 
part of Redemption was a Last Judgment performed 
upon these imaginary heavens; because it is necessary 
to know that the regenerating man, and the church 
itself, is infested and assailed by the spirits of these 
heavens. Such spirits are present, and assault the 
church in its beginning and throughout its progress, 
even until its final triumph. 

Those who constituted the imaginary heavens, and 
those who were in the lower earth previous to the 
judgment, as also the two similar types on earth, are 
described by the Lord in the following words, " And 
He spake this parable unto certain which trusted in 
themselves that they were just, and despised others. 
Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a 
Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee 
stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee 
that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, 



75 



adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in 
the week, I give tithes of all I possess. And the publi- 
can, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his 
eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his heart, saying, 
God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man 
went down to his house justified rather than the other ; 
for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; 
and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." (Luke 
18: 9-14.) The Pharisee represents the state of those 
in the imaginary heavens, and at the same time the 
state of those in a consummated church on earth; 
and the publican the state of those in the lower 
earth, who are to be received into the new heaven, 
and at the same time the state of the Gentiles on 
earth, or the state of those with whom a New Church 
can be formed. 

As will be readily seen, the Pharisee represents in 
particular a state of pride and self-conceit in the things 
of religion, a pride in the possession of the riches 
of the Word and of the church, and a conceit of superi- 
ority over others on that account ; and hence they who 
are such despise others in comparison with themselves. 
These, being unregenerate as to the internal man, but 
possessing the knowledges of truth in their external 
mind are able to live an outward life of piety; and 
when they pass into the other world, they form the 
imaginary heavens and infest those who are of the 
church, infest those who are undergoing regeneration, 
those who are humble and sincere, acknowledging that 
they are ignorant, that they know nothing from them- 
selves, but only from the Lord, and who on that ac- 
count have no conceit of human intelligence nor pride 
of superiority over others. They see and acknowledge 
their own evils, and say with the publican, " God be 
merciful to me a sinner." 

The establishment of the church with those who are 
represented by the publican is described in the series 



76 



of the Blessings ; and the presence of spirits who are in 
the opposite, who are hypocrites like the Pharisee, is 
also described. The presence of these is involved, 
but not manifestly expressed, in the Blessings at first, 
but towards the close their presence and their per- 
secution of those who are of the church is openly 
spoken of. " Blessed are they that are persecuted for 
the sake of justice; for theirs is the kingdom of 
heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, 
and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil 
against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be 
exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven; 
for so persecuted they the prophets which were before 
you.' 7 (Verses 10-12.) 

That the state of the Pharisee, or the state repre- 
sented by him, is a state of hypocrisy and conceit in 
the things of religion, is evident from the denunciation 
of them by the Lord in various passages of the Gos- 
pels, especially in the twenty-third chapter of Mat- 
thew. In that chapter we find these words, "Woe 
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye 
make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, 
but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou 
blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the 
cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean 
also." (Verses 25, 26.) 

It will thus be noted that the Pharisee is clean and 
pure in his outward conduct, but not clean and pure 
in heart; hence the injunction by the Lord to them to 
" cleanse the inside of the cup and platter, that the 
outside may be clean also;" for the "outside," or the 
external man, is not really clean, even though it ap- 
pears so, unless the " inside," or the internal man be 
clean also. But the Pharisee and the hypocrite ap- 
pear unto men to be clean, because of apparent clean- 
ness of speech and conduct. As to the internal man, 



77 



however, they are not clean; for the lusts of self- 
love and the love of the world, together with a con- 
ceit of superiority over others, are active there. They 
are not "pure in heart/' and on that account can- 
not "see God;" for no man has the light of God 
without the love of God. But the simple, the faithful, 
the honest, the sincere, the just, the upright, who 
acknowledge the Lord as the only Teacher of men, 
and who receive His teaching when He reveals the 
spiritual doctrine of His Word, who receive this doc- 
trine and apply it to life, — these, by the gradual proc- 
esses of regeneration, become "pure in heart," and 
these are they that " see God;" and no others see Him. 

It can now be clearly seen that to be "pure in 
heart " is to be regenerated as to the internal man. 
But that the external man is not yet regenerated, is 
evident from what follows in the Blessings, where the 
persecutions of the church are described, or the tempta- 
tion combats of the man of the church; for if the ex- 
ternal man were regenerated as well as the internal, 
there would be no further conflict, and man would be 
wholly clean, safe from all persecution. 

At this point, let us consider what the internal man 
is, which is signified by " heart " in the text. 

The Heavenly Doctrine teaches that the internal 
man is regenerated first, and that when the internal 
is regenerated, by means of it the external also is 
regenerated; and that the external is not regenerated 
before this, whatsoever the appearance may be. This 
is what is meant by the Lord's teaching, which we 
have quoted, that the inside of the cup and platter 
must first be cleaned, that the outside may also be 
made clean. By the internal man which is regener- 
ated first, or before the external man, is not meant the 
internal spiritual man proper, or that degree of the 
mind which is on the plane of the heavens, and into 



7^ 



which evil does not enter, which is man's heaven 
while he lives in the natural world, and the heaven 
that he enters openly and actively after death; but the 
internal of the natural mind is meant; and the ex- 
ternal of the same. For the natural mind is twofold, 
internal and external; and both are evil, both in need 
of regeneration. 

Before regeneration, and with all the unregenerate, 
the internal of the natural mind is nothing but evil, 
since it is nothing but the love of self and the love of 
the world and the evil affections of those two loves, 
and also the thoughts of those affections, which are 
falsities. The internal of the natural man, therefore, 
by birth and inheritance, and by acquired life, is noth- 
ing but evil and falsity, and unless it be regenerated, 
unless its evils and falsities be removed, and goods and 
truths from heaven take their place, there can be no 
salvation. Hence the first thing of regeneration is the 
formation of a new will and a new understanding in 
the internal man, before the same can be done in the 
external. This internal of the natural is, as was said, 
the " inside of the cup and platter," which must first 
be cleansed before man can be made clean. Those 
who are regenerated as to this internal are they who are 
called the " pure in heart." The external man is also 
nothing but evil ; but it does not so appear to the out- 
ward view, because of the assumption of the appear- 
ance of piety and uprightness in speech and conduct. 

The real life of every man while he is in the world, 
both the life of the evil and the life of the good, is in 
his internal natural; but so long as he lives in the 
body, he puts on an external or apparent life. The 
unregenerate and the wicked man assumes it as a cloak 
or covering for the evils that are within, that are in 
the internal natural; and even the good man is some- 
times under the necessity of putting on an appearance 



79 



not in agreement with a genuine internal. This cover- 
ing is put on in order that accommodation may be 
made to the company in which one is, and in order 
that one may yield, or appear to yield, to the ruling 
public opinion, against which he does not wish to go, 
on account of various causes looking to a good end 
with the good, or to mere selfish or worldly advantage 
with the evil. But he lays this covering or cloak aside 
when he is left to himself, when he is alone or by him- 
self, as when he is in his room at home, or at other 
times when he thinks freely from his ruling love, 
uninfluenced by his surroundings or the opinions of 
others. When thus situated, he thinks from his own 
will, and his thoughts then are according to his will 
or love; and if this will or love be evil, the thoughts 
will of consequence be false thoughts, or falsities of his 
evil. It is the formation by regeneration of this 
internal man that is the subject of the text, and of the 
preceding verses; and the purity of heart spoken of 
takes place when, by regeneration, the evil lusts of the 
internal man have been removed, and a new will or a 
new love takes the place of the old, and at the same 
time a new light in the understanding. So that when 
such a man thinks or meditates alone, his thoughts 
are even more sane, more true, more wise, than when 
he is in the company of others; for he is thinking in 
greater freedom, since he is then thinking as a good 
spirit, or as an angel of heaven, the restraints of the 
outer world upon him being removed. 

In the series of the internal sense of the Blessings, 
the subject is the descent of good into the natural by 
the process of regeneration, — the way having been 
prepared by truth of doctrine from the Word. When 
the truth is received into the understanding as taught 
by the Lord in His Word, received humbly, affirma- 
tively, and with affection; when one is affected by it 



8o 



from within, believes it, wills it, loves it, lives it, then 
the combat begins; resistance is made to all that 
which opposes the truth, all false doctrine and all evil 
lust; and in the degree that the combat is successful, 
in the degree that falsity and evil are removed, heaven 
is opened, — the internal spiritual man is opened, — and 
heaven descends out of the spiritual into the natural; 
first into the interior of the natural, forming there 
a new will and a new understanding; the conjunction 
of good and truth takes place, man is introduced into 
consociation with the angels and is conjoined with 
God; and it is of such that it is said, "Blessed are 
the pure in heart; for they shall see God." 

Heaven is now in the interior of the natural, and 
this heaven in the natural is what is called the church ; 
and the state and process by which this is brought 
about in the individual is what is called regeneration; 
for regeneration takes place in the natural, and the 
church is where regeneration is, namely, in the natural. 
It is for this reason that the church is called in the 
Writings the Lord's heaven on the earth — on the earth, 
that is in the natural. Strictly speaking the church is 
where a number of such are associated together, and 
where the state of heaven in the interior of the natural 
is the dominant state of life with those who are so asso- 
ciated. When spiritual good is present in the interior 
of the natural, conjoined with truth of doctrine there, 
and when this state is dominant in an organized or 
consociated body called the church, then heaven is 
come down to earth, and the tabernacle of God is with 
men. 

Let us remember, however, that the establishment 
of the church in the interior of the natural is not its 
complete establishment; as applied to the individual, 
the regeneration of the interior natural is not regen- 
eration as a complete state. There is much work yet 



8i 



to be done; there is much of combat yet to take place; 
for the external opposes, and the external must be 
subdued and brought into order. As soon as the 
church has established itself in the interior of the 
natural, it is assailed by the powers of hell in both 
worlds, and the external is excited to oppose its 
further descent. Hence arises the combat of tempta- 
tion, a combat more grievous than before. It is 
the combat of Michael and the dragon. The powers 
of hell assail. This assault is what is called in the 
letter of the Word persecution, and it is so called in 
the latter part of the Blessings, as we have seen. 

The word rendered " pure " in the text may be liter- 
ally translated clean. In the original tongue, it signi- 
fies to be cleansed, and thus to be freed from dirt or 
filth, as is done by washing with water. Water, in the 
spiritual sense, is the truth from the Word; and the 
evil lusts of the will in the interior of the natural are 
the filth from which men are to be cleansed. The 
cleansing of the internal of the natural by the truth 
of faith is what is meant by the words of the Lord 
to Peter, when He said, " If I wash thee not, thou hast 
no part with me. ... He that is washed hath no 
need save to wash his feet, but is wholly clean." 
(John 13: 8, 10.) By the "feet" is signified the ex- 
ternal man which is still to be purified after the in- 
ternal has been made clean. The same is signified in 
the Psalms, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be 
clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. . . . 
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a firm 
spirit within me." (51:7, 10.) A "clean heart" 
and a " firm spirit " (or a true spirit) are the new will 
and the new understanding in the internal of the 
natural, concerning which we have been treating. We 
find the same in another Psalm, "Who shall ascend 
into the mountain of the Lord? or who shall stand in 



82 



His holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a 
pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul to vanity, 
nor sworn to deceit. He shall receive the blessing 
of the Lord, and justice from the God of his salva- 
tion." (24: 3-5.) As in the text it is said that the 
"pure in heart shall see God," so in this Psalm it is 
said that " he that hath clean hands and a pure heart 
shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord, and stand 
in His holy place." 

We thus have before us the doctrine, and this doc- 
trine illustrated in the letter of the Word, that the 
internal man, — the internal of the natural man, — must 
be regenerated first, and when this is regenerated, that 
by means of it the external is also to be regenerated. 
All regeneration of the external before this, before the 
internal is regenerated, is spurious and a sham; and 
it is of this the Lord spoke in His denunciation of the 
Pharisees; that is, of the external and its state before 
the internal is regenerated, before the lusts of evil have 
been removed from the internal man; for He said, 
"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! 
for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed ap- 
pear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead 
men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also 
outwardly appear just unto men, but within ye are 
full of hypocrisy and iniquity." (Matt. 23: 27, 28.) 

A man may be outwardly sincere, outwardly just and 
true, outwardly faithful and upright; he may out- 
wardly speak the truth, he may outwardly confess the 
Lord, he may outwardly do good, outwardly keep the 
commandments; yet, if he be not inwardly sincere, in- 
wardly just and true, inwardly faithful and upright, 
if he speaketh not the truth in his heart, nor con- 
fesseth the Lord in his silent meditations, if he does 
not inwardly do good, if he does not inwardly keep 
the commandments, all those things which he does out- 



83 



wardly are of no avail In the sight of heaven. He is 
still unregenerate; the lusts of evil still dominate his 
internal thought, which is to dominate the man — for 
the internal will and thought make the man — he is a 
whited sepulchre, that is, within full of the bones of 
the dead and all uncleanness, full of hypocrisy and in- 
iquity; and a church in which this state dominates its 
thought and life is a dead church, making the estab- 
lishment of a new church a necessity in order that men 
may be saved. In the establishment of a new church 
there is hope for the human race; for since the Last 
Judgment has been accomplished, man may become 
pure in heart and see God, may shun the lusts of evil 
as sins against God; and in the state established by 
the removal of lusts, he will come into the light of 
heaven, or the light of heaven will descend into his 
interior thought, and in that light he will see the light 
of God, he will see God in His own Divine light ; and 
be conjoined with Him. 

The spiritual end in view in the series of the Bless- 
ings is conjunction with God, and the stages of the 
process by which conjunction with God is reached is 
presented to view in the internal sense. The continual 
repetition of the word blessed shows that this is the 
end throughout the series. Blessing, in its universal 
sense, is nothing else than conjunction; for conjunc- 
tion with God is heaven itself, and the source of all its 
happiness and delight. This is the reward, which we 
are told will be " great " in heaven, for which the 
angels rejoice, and are exceeding glad to all eternity. 

There are two distinct steps or stages in the pro- 
cess of being conjoined with God. The first is by the 
regeneration of the internal man, and the second is by 
the regeneration of the external man through the in- 
ternal. By the regeneration of the internal man, the 
state is reached in which the church or the man of the 



8 4 



church is said to see God, a state that is essential 
before conjunction is made final and complete — made 
final and complete by the regeneration of the external 
man. 

Illustration or spiritual enlightenment is the subject 
of the latter clause of the text, " For they shall see 
God." We learn from the Heavenly Doctrine that the 
meaning of these words is that the genuine truth of 
doctrine appears to those only who are in illustration 
from the Lord, and they only come into that illustra- 
tion, into that heavenly light, so as to be able to 
remain in it, in whom evils have been dislodged in their 
internal man, in whom spiritual good or spiritual love 
has descended from heaven into their interior natural, 
and who consequently love truth because it is truth, 
and because truths are for the uses of life. 

These are they who are in illustration when they 
read the Word; these are they who are in illustration 
when they read the Writings; these are they that see 
the Lord in His Word; these are they that see the 
Lord in His spiritual Word, as He comes a second 
time among men ; and this state is the Xew Jerusalem 
descended from heaven to earth, the city which " has 
no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it ; 
for the glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is 
the light thereof. And the nations of them that are 
saved shall walk in the light of it; and the kings of the 
earth do bring their glory and honor into it. And the 
gates of it shall not be shut at all by day; for there 
shall be no night there." Amen. 

Lessons: Joshua 7: 1-15. Matthew 23: 23-39. T. C. R. 595. 
Music: Liturgy, p. 500, 525, 550, 552; Hymnal, p. 139, 155, 
158, 162. 

Prayers: Liturgy, nos. 162, 163. Hymnal, nos. 9, 10. 



THE TEN BLESSINGS. 



SEVENTH SERMON. 

"Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be 
called the children of God" (Matthew 5: 9.) 

The seventh blessing is on the peacemakers, or on 
those who are instrumental in making peace between 
nations, between families, or between individuals who, 
on account of division, discord, or quarrel, have been 
at war with one another. And the literal meaning is, 
that they who cause such discord to cease, and bring 
together again those who have been divided and hostile, 
so that harmony, concord, union, take the place of dis- 
sension, strife, or open war, perform so distinguished 
and noble an act that they are said to be blessed in 
the sight of heaven. Those who so contribute to the 
welfare and happiness of mankind are indeed worthy 
of all praise, and entitled to rank among the bene- 
factors of the human race. 

Natural peace, however, is not spiritual peace. In 
every verse and sentence of the Word of God there is 
a natural idea, and there is at the same time interiorly 
within it a spiritual idea. Now what is spiritual peace, 
or peace under a spiritual idea? And what are peace- 
makers in the spiritual sense, or as that term is under- 
stood in heaven? It is important to see as the angels 
see, and to understand the Word as they understand 
it; for thus, our thought becomes like theirs, and by 
our affections we are consociated with them. 

Spiritual peace corresponds to natural peace; and 
as natural peace arises when there is a cessation of 
natural strife, discord and war, so spiritual peace arises 
when there is a cessation of spiritual strife, spiritual 
discord, and spiritual war. Natural war is combat 
against those who attack and attempt to take away 



86 



natural life, natural property and possessions, and 
natural liberty; but spiritual war is resistance to 
spiritual enemies, resistance to hell, to evil spirits from 
hell or, in the abstract, it is resistance to that which 
rises up out of hell and assails the spiritual life and 
spiritual liberty of man. That which rises up out of 
hell, or is inspired from hell, is evil love, evil lust, evil 
affection, evil desire, and excites the same in men in 
the world, thus threatening to destroy spiritual life, — 
love to God and love to the neighbor — for these are 
spiritual loves, and make of men spiritual men. 

That which rises up out of hell, and is inspired into 
man with hostile intent and purpose, is not only in- 
fernal love, infernal lust, and all evil affection, but 
also infernal falsity ; for wherever there is infernal lust, 
there is at the same time infernal falsity; the two go 
together and are inseparable. Infernal falsity which 
destroys spiritual life is falsity about the Lord, falsity 
about His Word, falsity about heaven and the way to 
heaven, falsity about life, and about that which makes 
the life of heaven. Such infernal lust and such in- 
fernal falsity, when they enter the mind, when they 
take possession and remain in the mind, destroy all 
spiritual life, take away spiritual peace, introduce dis- 
sension, discord, and strife among men, and lead them 
to hell, never again to see peace and rest; for indeed 
" there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." 
(Isaiah 57: 21.) 

Sometimes, even in the outer world, peace is the 
result or effect of war; sometimes war is for the sake 
of peace, — a more genuine, lasting peace than would 
be possible by any other instrumentality. And so it 
is in spiritual war, which is the combat of spiritual 
temptation. Spiritual peace is accomplished by war, 
by waging a war of resistance to that which opposes 
and assails spiritual life, against infernal lust and in- 



87 



fernal falsity. When such combat ceases, when such 
evils and falsities are overcome, then there is peace; 
then there is the peace that is called the peace of 
heaven. 

There is no peace in heaven except that which has 
been acquired by war, combat, temptation; and heav- 
enly peace is with no one on earth except after combat. 
No peace is possible to man, no spiritual peace is pos- 
sible in the natural of man, except that which follows 
the overcoming and the removal of natural lusts and 
the dispersion of the falsities of the natural man. 
Peace cannot possibly be given, cannot possibly be 
imparted to the natural of man, until this takes place. 
That is what the Lord meant when He said to His dis- 
ciples, " Think not that I am come to send peace on 
earth; I am not come to send peace, but a sword. " 
(Matthew 10 : 34.) By the " sword " is signified war, 
combat. The result of the Lord's presence in the 
natural of man is not peace, but combat, temptation, 
spiritual war. Peace comes in the end, but it is the 
peace that is the result of war, the result of conquest 
over those who are the enemies of peace. 

The natural man would have peace without war ; he 
prefers peace to the sword; and so he will not fight 
against his spiritual enemies, that is, he will make no 
effort to put away evil lust and infernal falsity. He 
assumes instead a state of natural good, and hence he 
is at apparent peace with his neighbor, while discord 
and strife reign within. These are they of whom it is 
said in Jeremiah, " They have healed the hurt of the 
daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; 
when there is no peace." (8: 11.) 

The natural man, following his innate inclination, is 
more concerned about suppressing temptation than he 
is about shunning evils. He is unwilling to enter into 
the combat necessary for the removal of evil, and cries, 



88 



Peace! By union with others of the same disposition, he 
obtains what he calls peace — peace in the external 
sphere, peace in the outward appearance; a peace that 
covers evils, but does not remove them, a peace that 
hides the discord within. The peace that is sought 
by avoiding combat is what is meant by "peace" in 
the passage we have just quoted from Jeremiah. 
" They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my 
people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no 
peace." 

The peace of heaven comes only through the com- 
bat of temptation, and there is no other pathway to 
eternal peace. It is familiar, and shines upon every 
page of the Heavenly Doctrine, shines in every chapter 
and verse of the letter of the Word — shines to him 
who has eyes to see — that there is no heaven without 
shunning evil as sin against God; and the bright light 
also appears to the seeing eye that there is no shun- 
ning of evil, and thus no obtaining of the peace of 
heaven, without the combat of temptation, without 
spiritual war. This warfare, this combat, this tempta- 
tion, which arises in resisting evil, in removing the 
falsity of evil, is what is meant by " work " or " labor " 
in the letter of the Word, and heaven is spoken of as 
a state of rest from such labors. This is what is 
meant in the book of Revelation by the words: " And 
I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, 
Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from 
henceforth; Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest 
from their labors; and their works do follow with 
them." (14:13.) 

In the first chapter of Genesis we have given us a 
description in the literal sense of the creation of the 
universe in six sucessive days, and on the seventh day 
there was rest; hence the seventh day was called the 
Sabbath, the word meaning rest. But in the spiritual 



8 9 



sense the new creation is described, which is the 
regeneration of man and the formation of heaven from 
regenerate men — the six days being the life of spiritual 
labor in the world, the labor of temptation combat, 
and the seventh day, or the Sabbath, being the rest 
and peace of heaven, the peace which follows labor, 
the spiritual labor of temptation combat. The labor 
is in reality the Lord's labor, though man labors from 
Him, and thus in cooperation with Him; hence it is. 
said that on the seventh day the Lord rested from His 
labors — a rest and a peace which He imparts to those 
who go with Him in the path of regeneration. 

So essential is this spiritual labor to the regeneration 
of men, so essential is it in the acquisition of the peace 
of heaven, that it appears throughout in Divine Reve- 
lation, and it is always involved or expressed where 
peace is the subject. The Blessings are no exception 
to this rule. We find that the idea of combat or 
temptation appears early in the Blessings, and runs 
through to the end. This idea comes out openly in the 
second Blessing, "Blessed are they that mourn; for 
they shall be comforted." We find in this Blessing 
that the idea of war and the idea of peace are coupled 
together, and that the one is the result of the other. 
They who mourn are comforted because they mourn, 
Mourning is the grief and distress that attends tempta- 
tion combat, and the comfort is the consolation of 
peace which always follows genuine spiritual tempta- 
tion. Both temptation and consolation, both war and 
peace, appear also in the latter part of the Blessings; 
where the war or combat of temptation is signified by 
persecution, and where the peace that follows tempta- 
tion is signified by the " reward in heaven/' which we 
are told is " great " — so great that it cannot be de- 
scribed in human language, as we learn from the 
Heavenly Doctrine. 



5 o 



In the letter of the Word, when an idea once enters 
the series of the spiritual sense, it continues to the end 
of the series. This is true in the Blessings in respect to 
the idea of temptation and consolation, the idea of 
spiritual war and spiritual peace. This idea enters, as 
we have seen, with the second Blessing, and it appears 
again in a striking way in the seventh, which is before 
us for consideration, "Blessed are the peacemakers; 
for they shall be called the children of God." 

As has been shown, wherever peace is spoken of in 
the Word, war is involved in the spiritual sense— war 
is involved as having taken place, and peace follows as 
an effect, — the peace that comes by war, the peace that 
arises as the result of conquest and triumph over evils 
and the falsities of evil. It is so in the series of the 
Blessings. The peace that is spoken of is the peace 
that is made by war, and the peacemakers are warriors 
on behalf of the truth of the Word. Michael and his 
angels were peacemakers when they fought the dragon 
and overcame him by the blood of the Lamb; Joshua 
was a peacemaker when he overcame the nations in 
the land of Canaan, the nations who held the heritage 
of Israel; David was a peacemaker when he drove 
back the Philistine hosts, so that they came to disturb 
Israel no more. The Lord Himself came into the world 
as the Divine Peacemaker; and the chief thing that 
contributed to the peace which He came to establish 
was His conquest and subjugation of the hells. Every 
man, every regenerate man, is a peacemaker when he 
makes war, as of himself from the Lord, against the 
lusts of evil in himself, and overcomes them, thereby 
inheriting the peace of heaven, — the peace of which 
the Lord spoke when He said to His disciples, " These 
things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might 
have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation; 
but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." 
(John 16 : 33.) 



9i 



The special application of the doctrine of the text 
is to the peace that comes as the result of the con- 
flict between the internal and external man, in which 
the external man resists the internal, but is finally 
overcome. Spiritual peace is the outcome and effect. 

We have learned that in the sixth Blessing, the one 
which precedes the text, that the subject is concern- 
ing the regeneration of the internal man, the internal 
of the natural, which at first was nothing but evil, into 
which spiritual good has descended from heaven, form- 
ing a new will and a new understanding in the internal 
natural. This is the first of regeneration; that is, as 
the Doctrine teaches us, the internal man is regen- 
erated first, and by it, and after it, the external. The 
internal man, which is regenerated first, — or he in 
whom the internal man has been regenerated, in whom 
a new will and a new understanding have been formed 
in the internal man, in whom the conjunction of good 
and truth has taken place in the interior of the natural, 
— he it is who is meant by the " pure in heart" in 
the sixth Blessing. These are they, the "pure in 
heart," that "shall see God." By the "heart" is 
meant the internal of the natural man, and by purity 
and cleanness of heart is meant the regeneration of 
that internal. Those who are such are said to " see 
God," that is, they are in illustration or spiritual en- 
lightenment. They see God, they see Divine things 
in the Word, they see Divine things in heavenly light, 
they have a will to do them, and they carry them out 
into life, fighting against and overcoming all things 
in the external man which resist and oppose the life of 
heaven from the Divine of the Lord in heaven. 

All spiritual peace is from the conjunction of good 
and truth. When there is the conjunction of good and 
truth in the internal man, or the formation of a new 
will and a new understanding, a new heart and a new 



92 



spirit, then there is peace — peace in the internal of the 
natural, but not as yet in the external. For the ex- 
ternal still resists, and so long as there is such resist- 
ance, there is no complete and established peace. 
Hence the new internal must now come forth and con- 
quer a peace in the external also. 

In the previous Blessings, the subject is the forma- 
tion of the new internal man in the natural, but now, 
and until the end of the series, the subject is the union 
of the internal and the external, which union is ac- 
complished by subduing the evils which still have their 
abode in the external. When the internal and the ex- 
ternal man are thus brought into union, then follows 
the peace of heaven, the reward in heaven. 

This conflict between the internal and the external 
man is called " making peace/ 7 and those who are en- 
gaged in this conflict, — this war for the sake of peace, 
— are the peacemakers of the text, who are called the 
"children of God." The internal and external man 
have been divided; they have been in hostility to each 
other; they have been at war with each other, and the 
conflict has been prolonged. But at last the ex- 
ternal has submitted, the evils in the external that 
caused resistance to the internal have been put away, 
the internal and external man are now in agreement, 
harmony is restored where before was discord, division, 
disunion, strife; now there is concord, union, friend- 
ship, love, peace. The peace is yet to be disturbed 
from time to time till the final triumph is gained; but 
the external is willing to submit itself, bring itself into 
order, into harmony and correspondence with the in- 
ternal man. Jacob is willing to submit to Esau, the 
external man desires peace,— peace by conjunction 
with the internal man. 

We are not surprised, therefore, to find that the 
word "peace" in the Greek language, as used in the 



93 



original of the text, signifies to " connect into one," to 
" join," to " fasten together." For it is indeed true 
that war distracts, divides nations, families, individ- 
uals, from each other; but peace restores, brings back 
unity, brings those together who had been separated 
and hostile to each other. 

Men are by nature hostile and at war with God and 
with each other. Peace comes when this ceases. Peace 
comes when man ceases to fight against God and His 
Providence, when he ceases to strive for the mastery 
over his neighbor. Peace comes when the external man 
ceases to resist the internal. The external was hostile 
to the internal, endeavored to overcome and subdue it ; 
but now it is willing to be at peace; now it is willing 
to bring to an end its resistance to the internal, to 
cease its assaults, is willing to join itself with the in- 
ternal to receive its life, react with it, conjoin itself 
with it. 

To be willing to make peace, therefore, is to be will- 
ing to cease doing anything that tends to the injury 
of the neighbor, to the injury of good, to cease doing 
that which operates against and injures the life of 
heaven, the life which is from God, the life which is 
the love of God, which is conjunction with God. For 
when man is conjoined with God, he is at peace; for 
then he not only loves God, but he loves the neighbor; 
and no man wars against that which he loves. He is 
then at peace with God and at peace with the neigh- 
bor; and the Divine sphere of peace, the heavenly 
sphere of peace, is with him and in him. All who re- 
ceive this peace are called the children of God, the 
sons of God; for then God is their Father, and they 
are born of Him by regeneration. Natural birth is 
from a natural father, but spiritual birth, the new 
birth, is from God as the Father. They who make 
peace through the combat of temptations are thus 
newly born, and become the sons of God. 



94 



But let us now take a view of the text in its more 
interior spiritual sense, which is abstracted from any 
idea of persons. We have already shown in this series 
of discourses that the general subject of the Blessings 
is the revelation of the doctrine of genuine truth by the 
Lord, and the reception of it by men in the world 
who are to form the church. This true doctrine is 
indicated and expressed by various words and phrases 
from the beginning to the end of the series. We are 
now face to face with the fact that doctrine is signi- 
fied by " peacemakers." We have seen that the Lord 
is the Peacemaker in the universal sense, and we have 
now to add that the Divine Doctrine, which is the Lord 
in the church, is the peacemaker and the only real 
peacemaker among men. Nothing else brings peace 
that is enduring and eternal. But Doctrine is com- 
posed of parts, which are variously termed doctrines, 
doctrinals, or truths of doctrine. These doctrines, or 
truths of doctrine, are what wage war in all spiritual 
temptation, and are what are meant by peacemakers 
in the plural. Against these true doctrines, false doc- 
trines are arrayed and assail ; and, as has been shown, 
such false doctrines as attacking the truths of the 
church, are present, actively present, throughout the 
progress of regeneration, as described in the Blessings, 
and cause the most bitter trials of temptation to 
those who love the truths of the Word. 

Doctrine is composed of parts, and the parts or 
truths must be in harmony with each other; hence the 
significance of the meaning of the word " peace " in the 
Greek language — to connect into one, to join or fasten 
together, — indicating to us that peace is made in the 
church, the enemies of peace being overcome, when 
truths of doctrine are brought into agreement, into 
concord, into harmonious relation with each other, so 
as to make one body or united whole. There is no spirit- 



95 



ual peace in the church until all the parts of doctrine 
are thus brought into harmonious agreement, each as- 
signed its proper place and value in relation to all the 
other truths of doctrine. It is thus that we are to un- 
derstand the signification of peacemakers in the ab- 
stract spiritual sense. Hence, when united together in 
one harmonious body of doctrine, its truths are spoken 
of as "blessed;" for by "blessing" is signified har- 
mony and union, and the peace and happiness which 
result therefrom, — both in doctrines, and in those who 
receive them. For when harmony of doctrine in all its 
related parts is brought about, then the men of the 
church are also brought into harmony with each other 
in charity and good will, and the peace and happiness 
of heaven is present with the men of the church. Men 
are then united, not only in doctrine, but in heart and 
life; they are consociated with the angels and con- 
joined with God, the Author of all peace. 

Now, in order that man might be conjoined with 
Him, and be at peace, God Himself, the Father of 
angels and men, came into the world. He came into 
the world to teach the doctrine of peace, to impart 
peace, to bless His people with peace, that all men 
might become the sons of God, and be thus blessed 
with eternal peace. But the greater part of mankind 
were not willing, and are not now willing to receive 
this peace, and hence they spurn the doctrine of peace. 
They prefer to fight against God, to resist the things 
which are of God, to shut the door of peace, to shut 
the door against Him who is the only Author and 
Maker of peace, the only Giver of peace. This is the 
reason it was said that " He was in the world, and the 
world was made by Him, and the world knew Him 
not. He came unto His own, and His own received 
Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave 
He power to become the sons of God, even to them 



96 



that believe on His name; which were born, not of 
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of 
man, but of God." (John i : 10-13.) Amen. 

Lessons: I Kings 22:10-37. Revelation 6. H. H. 289, 290. 
Music: Liturgy, p. 508, 523, 550, 564, 621, 642. 
Prayers: Liturgy, nos. 181, 182. 



THE TEN BLESSINGS. 



EIGHTH SERMON. 

" Blessed are they which are persecuted for the sake 
of justice; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 9 ' 
(Matthew 5: 10.) 

The blessings upon the persecuted immediately fol- 
lows the blessing upon the peacemakers, and it might 
appear at first sight that there is no special connec- 
tion between them; but when we understand that 
the Word of God is written in a series, and that each 
thing connects with that which precedes it and with 
that which follows it, we know at once that there is 
some connection between the idea of persecution and 
the idea of peacemaking. We have already seen what 
this connection is. We have seen that by the " pure in 
heart" are meant those in whom the internal man 
has been formed anew, preparatory to the regeneration 
of the external, and that the conflict between the in- 
ternal and the external is what is meant by peace- 
making, because peace, the peace of heaven, is the 
result of spiritual war, and is acquired in no other 
way. The conflict arises because the external man 
assaults the internal, or those who are external men 
assault those who are internal, being inspired by the 
evil spirits who occupy the imaginary heavens, and 
who have put on a garment of external holiness for 
the sake of deceiving and ruling over the simple and 
the well-disposed. These latter are internal men, 
though not as yet instructed in the things of the king- 
dom of heaven; but as soon as they are instructed, 
their love of truth is assailed, and hence it is said 
that they are " persecuted for the sake of justice." 



97 



9 8 



In the Greek language, the word persecute signifies 
to put into rapid motion, to pursue, to follow eagerly. 
The idea is that of energetic and at the same time 
malignant pursuit, as of dogs after a wounded deer, 
or as when the deer stands at bay and there is conflict. 
The meaning is similar in the English word persecute, 
namely, to pursue with the purpose of injury, to grieve 
or afflict another, to harass, punish or endeavor to 
destroy the property, life or good name of another. 
It is especially applied to persecution of any one on 
account of his religious opinion or mode of worship. 

When the natural idea of persecution is applied to 
the spiritual life of man, or to his regeneration, we 
are quite ready to see what is involved in the spiritual 
sense of the text. There is indeed a manifest sug- 
gestion of spiritual persecution, or spiritual tempta- 
tion, in the definition which applies the word to 
persecution of another on account of his religious 
opinion or mode of worship ; for this in reality presents 
to our view that thing in the Writings which is called 
spiritual temptation. We are told that the distress 
and grief in which man is when his faith is assaulted, 
when attack is made upon the doctrine which he be- 
lieves and loves, when the spiritual truth of the Word 
which he has made a principle of life and conscience 
is assailed with bitterness and malignity, — that the 
distress and grief of heart which arises when that 
which is valued above all things is placed in jeopardy, 
— this is spiritual temptation, and brings before us 
the subject of the text, " Blessed are they which are 
persecuted for the sake of justice; for of such is the 
kingdom of heaven." 

There is involved in the idea of persecution a con- 
dition that is most general. There is nothing that 
exists that is not in danger of assault or attack, in 
danger of the destruction of its form and mode of 



99 



activity; and there is nothing that exists that does 
not resist this attack upon its constitution, structure, 
mode of life, or use. Even in the mineral kingdom, 
every pebble or grain of sand, every piece of metal 
or mineral, is in danger of what we call destruction 
from the corroding or biting acids of nature, or from 
other causes; and it may or may not successfully re- 
sist this attack. In the vegetable kingdom, every 
seed, plant, flower or fruit is environed by its enemies, 
and it may successfully resist, or may be compelled 
to yield its life as the result of attack. Every animal 
is in the same situation, and there is no exception in 
animal life to this fact of nature. Every man, as soon 
as he is born, begins to be persecuted, or his natural 
life attacked; dangers attend the life of the body at 
every step of its growth. It is so with the spiritual 
man, or man after his spiritual birth in adult age, 
and hence we read of the great red dragon which 
stood before the woman to devour her child as soon 
as it was born. (Rev. 12: 4.) 

We find the subject of spiritual persecution, which 
is spiritual temptation, in the Word throughout, either 
expressed or involved. It is the burden of most of 
the Psalms, and it is in nearly every chapter of the 
Prophets and the historical parts of the Word. The 
Lord often spoke of it to His disciples, as when He 
said, "But beware of men; for they will deliver you 
up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their 
synagogues; and ye shall be brought before governors 
and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them 
and the Gentiles." (Matthew 10:17, 18.) "Re- 
member the word that I spake unto you, The servant 
is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted 
me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept 
my saying, they will keep yours also." (John 15: 20.) 
" They which are sown in stony ground have no root 



IOO 



in themselves, and so endure but for a time, after- 
ward, when affliction and persecution ariseth for the 
word's sake, immediately they are offended." (Mark 
4: 17.) The Lord also said to the Jews, "Wherefore, 
behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and 
scribes; and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; 
and some of them ye shall scourge in your synagogues, 
and persecute from city to city." (Matthew 23: 34.) 
And in Revelation we read that "when the dragon 
saw that he was cast into the earth, he persecuted 
the woman which brought forth the man child." 
(12: 13.) And the reason why this subject is so often 
treated of in the Word, the reason why the Lord so 
often spoke to His disciples concerning it, is because 
men receive eternal life by means of temptations, by 
means of persecutions, by means of conflict and re- 
sistance to evil and falsity when they assail. 
" Blessed are they that are persecuted for the sake of 
justice; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed 
are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, 
and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely 
for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for 
great is your reward in heaven; for so persecuted 
they the prophets which were before you." (Mat- 
thew 5: 10-12.) 

They who suffer persecution, they who are in spirit- 
ual temptation, are they who are in the spiritual af- 
fection of truth, the affection of truth for its own sake, 
the affection of truth for the sake of truth — the 
spiritual truth of the Word — not for the sake of self 
or the glory of the world, not to satisfy the cravings 
of ambition or for the applause of men, not for the 
sake of worldly advantage or worldly reward, not for 
reputation and gain, but because the truth is from 
the Lord and points out the way of life, because it 
reveals what evil is, and points out the way to the 



101 



removal of evil, because it leads to good, to use, to 
heaven and to the Lord, because it establishes man 
in his true relations with his neighbor and with his 
God, because it renews, vivifies, restores, because it 
is the only thing that makes life worth living, because 
it is the only thing that has eternity in it and the hope 
and promise of eternal life. This is the spiritual af- 
fection of truth, the love of truth for its own sake, 
the love of truth because it is truth; and these are 
they that suffer spiritual temptation, that suffer per- 
secution for the sake of justice, but who thereby re- 
ceive the kingdom of heaven; for the promise is, 
" Great is your reward in heaven." 

The assault of persecution is the attempt of evil 
spirits, and of men who are inspired by them, to de- 
prive others of truth, to take away the truth that is 
so much loved and valued. This is done by insinuat- 
ing false doctrines, false ideas, false principles ; and 
when these enter the thought and engage the atten- 
tion, truths cannot appear; they are as it were under 
a cloud. Man loves them, but they seem to be gone 
away, and there is anxiety and distress. There is a 
constriction of the faculties of the mind, and freedom 
seems to have departed, and with it all the delight of 
life. Man is held bound, as it were in prison. He 
is unhappy because he cannot understand the truth 
of the Word; yet he wishes to understand it; and 
sometimes he reaches the extreme of despair, which is 
to stand upon the brink of hell, into which he would 
fall if the Lord did not come to rescue and deliver. 
But even in this state he is blessed, because the truth 
is still there, the affection of truth is still there, the 
Lord is still there, and even more present than be- 
fore, and delivers by giving new light, new truth in a 
new perception; for every new perception of truth 
is a coming of the Lord to redeem and save. 



102 



This affection, the affection of truth for its own 
sake, is the ruling idea in the Blessings, and this rul- 
ing idea presents itself in many forms. We see it in 
the first Blessing, where the " poor in spirit " are said 
to be blessed. There is blessing in true poverty of 
spirit because in the love of truth for its own sake 
there is the acknowledgment that all truth is from 
the Lord, and nothing of it from man; and those who 
have this acknowledgment in the thought of the un- 
derstanding are they who are said to be "poor in 
spirit." We see it again in the fourth Blessing, in 
which the Lord says, " Blessed are they which do 
hunger and thirst after justice; for they shall be 
filled." The love of truth for its own sake, which is 
also called the spiritual affection of truth, is a hunger 
and thirst after justice; and the state of justice is 
the state established in those who love truth because 
it is truth. No others are realty just, or are in the 
love of iustice. And now the same thing appears in 
the eighth Blessing, which is before us. The regen- 
erating man is now established in justice and the love 
of justice, and he is persecuted because of it. The 
internal man is formed, the spiritual affection of truth 
has descended out of heaven into the interior of the 
natural; a new will and a new understanding are 
there; his hunger and his thirst have been satisfied; 
conscience is there; the love of justice is there; and 
he is assailed because he is just, and will not bend 
to the demands of the world, nor yield to the love 
and delights of the world, which are still active and 
still capable of being excited in the external man. 

We read that when a man lives according to the 
precepts of the Lord, he procures to himself justice, 
not the justice of the Lord's redemption and redeem- 
ing work, for this justice is the Lord's alone, but the 
Lord Himself as justice. (T. C. R. 96.) To live 



103 



according to the precepts of the Lord is not to live 
according to the precepts of the world, the precepts 
of man, the precepts of human intelligence. To live 
according to the precepts of the Lord is to believe in 
justice, it is to love justice, and to do it; then man 
receives the justice of the Lord. When man loves 
justice, and does it, he is assailed by the powers of 
hell because he acts not according to the appearance, 
and is unwilling to act according to the appearance, 
but believes in a just judgment, and lives accordingly. 
He does not act according to what the world wants 
him to do, but according to what he sees to be right. 
He has the courage to say, No. He does not believe 
in the appearances of truth, nor does he accept the 
appearances of good; and so the fires of jealousy, 
hatred and revenge are enkindled against him, and 
he is persecuted because he loves the truth more than 
the opinions of men, and justice more than the de- 
mands and requirements of the world. In so doing 
he is following the Lord; for the Lord, when He was 
in the outer world among men, was persecuted for the 
sake of justice. He came into the world as Justice 
Itself, and to establish justice among men; He was 
therefore reviled and persecuted, and finally made to 
suffer the ignominious death on the cross; all be- 
cause the Divine Justice was embodied in Him, — the 
Divine Justice, which at the same time was the Di- 
vine Love and the Divine Mercy. 

There is nothing the infernal spirits so hate as 
justice, and hence there are none they so hate as those 
who are in the love of justice, and who do justice 
from the love of it. This is the reason they inspired 
the Jews to revile and persecute the Lord and put 
Him to death, and this is the reason they inspire men 
in all time to do the same to those who are images 
of the Lord. But notwithstanding infernal hatred 



104 

and fury ? the Lord, by acts of justice, redeemed the 
human race as a whole, and will redeem every indi- 
vidual man who is willing to love the justice of God, 
and make it his own by acts of justice in his own 
individual sphere and life. Nor can any man be re- 
deemed and saved unless he believes and has faith 
in justice, and unless he loves it, and does the justice 
which is not his own but the Lord's with him. 

That which is of essential value in human life is 
always considered as worth fighting for, in order to 
hold it when threatened, or to obtain it when it is 
not as yet in one's possession, but is most ardently 
desired for its value and its use — such as the liberty 
of one's country. When one loves spiritual or eternal 
life, commensurate with its value, he will endure all 
things to keep it and to preserve it, no matter what 
the cost may be. He will also love the instrumen- 
talities of that life, which are truths of doctrine from 
the Word; and he will defend them with all the ardor 
and energy of his soul. The truths of the Word, and 
the life that is obtained by them, is what is meant 
by justice; and the spiritual temptation which arises, 
—the stress and strain, the grief and pain, the sorrow 
and anguish, when one is assailed for his love of 
justice and its truth, — is what is meant by being 
"persecuted for the sake of justice." 

But all is not justice that appears like it. Even 
the wicked, — evil spirits and evil men, — may put on 
the robe of justice; and the regenerating man at first 
— perhaps not in this life — is not able to distinguish 
between those who love justice for its own sake and 
those who put it on from self will, caprice, self-love, 
the love of dominating, and who do not value the 
thing itself except as instrumental to selfish ends; 
who even put on the garment of the Word, and clothe 
themselves with the habiliments of eternal life, gird- 



105 

ing themselves about with the eternal justice of God, 
in order to accomplish their wicked designs. And 
we are told that the evil in the other world so clothe 
themselves, to the end that they may persecute the 
good under the appearance of what is just, thereby 
justifying themselves. This is the justice that is 
without mercy. These are they that deceive the faith- 
ful after death, forming what are called the imaginary 
heavens, and holding the simple in both worlds under 
their dominion, by means of those in this world who 
co-operate with them. When those who have in 
themselves a remnant of good discover the character 
of these hypocrites, they then resist their inflowing 
spheres, and fight against them for their spiritual 
life; while the evil, on their part, persecute with the 
endeavor and purpose of subjugation, or of holding 
them under their Egyptian bondage; and their per- 
secution is under the appearance of truth and justice. 
It is not the open attack of the evil fighting an honest 
war, but the insidious attack of malignant cunning 
under the appearance of right and justice, under the 
appearance and claim of being the rightful holders 
and guardians of the truth and good of heaven. Es- 
pecially in the other life do these " wolves in sheep's 
clothing" practice their persecutions upon the in- 
nocent; but the church on earth is also infested by 
their pestilential sphere — a church which has as its 
dominant principle of life a "hunger and thirst after 
justice," a love of the truth and good of justice, the 
justice which is revealed by the Lord in His Word. 

It is thus that the real temptations of the church in 
both worlds arise, namely, from the evil who are in 
possession of the truths of the church, and not from 
the evil who are in ignorance of them. The evil who 
are in possession of the truth are meant by those who 
" persecute for the sake of justice;" and they are 



io6 

permitted to assail the truth of justice, which they 
interiorly hate, because of the acquisition of good 
that accrues to the church, or to the regenerating 
men of the church, by persecution, or by the combat 
of spiritual temptation. 

At the stage of regeneration which we have now 
reached in our consideration of the subject of the 
Beatitudes, the internal man is formed, with its new 
will and new understanding: but the external man is 
still in evil, and this fact or condition of the external 
makes it easy for falsities to invade and excite in the 
external the delights of the love of the world, and thus 
to assail the internal. It is through these delights 
that evil spirits, by their falsities of evil, are able to 
enter, to have a hold, and to bind, to inflict pain, grief 
and distress, — to persecute. For the conflict of 
temptation is a conflict of the delights of the internal 
and external man; and so long as evil delights are in 
the external, the devil has power: and if these de- 
lights are not fought against and removed, the in- 
ternal will in the end be overcome, and the imprison- 
ment of man become permanent in some society of 
hell after death. 

Because of the bitterness of the conflict at this 
stage of regeneration, a strong word like persecution 
is used to express the idea of a cunning and malignant 
assault upon the spiritual life of man — upon the 
spiritual life of those signified by the disciples whom 
the Lord was addressing. They are to be persecuted 
because they love justice and its truth: but still they 
are blessed even in the persecution, and by it; for it 
is to be the means to them of obtaining the kingdom 
of heaven: it is to be the means by which the Lord 
is to give them that kingdom, or introduce them into 
His church on earth and into His heaven in the other 
life. 



io7 



In the text, the phrase " the kingdom of heaven " 
is used the second time in the series of the Blessings. 
It occurs in the first in these words ? " Blessed are the 
poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," 
and now a second time in the text before us. First, 
" the poor in spirit," and now " they which are per- 
secuted " are to receive the kingdom of heaven. We 
read in the Doctrine that " the kingdom of heaven 
signifies the church, because the kingdom of the Lord 
is in heaven and on earth, and His kingdom on earth 
is the church." John the Baptist preached in the 
wilderness that " the kingdom of heaven is at hand." 
The Lord also, preaching in Galilee, spake the same 
words, by which He meant that He had come into the 
world Himself to establish an internal church, which 
was to be His heaven on earth, preparatory for His 
heaven after death. 

Now why is the term used twice in the series? It 
appears like a repetition, but we are taught that there 
are no repetitions in the Word; where there is an ap- 
parent repetition of words and phrases, it is because 
one treats of truth and the other of good, or one treats 
of wisdom and the other of love, or again, one treats 
of the understanding and the other of the will. It 
is so in the present instance. In the first Blessing the 
subject is faith, or the understanding of truth, and 
the acknowledgment in the understanding that we 
know nothing from ourselves, but only from God, as 
we are taught by His Word; now, however, the sub- 
ject is charity in the will, established there by means 
of temptations. In either case, we become an in- 
habitant of the kingdom of heaven, or a member of 
the church on earth, — first by a spiritual faith, and 
second by charity or a spiritual love of the neighbor. 
Faith comes first in time, and then there is a regular 
progression from faith to charity, through the path- 



io8 

way of spiritual temptation, — the only pathway from 
faith to charity, from the earth to heaven. 

The Lord's kingdom, indeed, is also over hell, and 
hell is therefore made to serve the ends of His king- 
dom; for nothing exists that is not made to serve the 
ends and uses of the Lord's spiritual kingdom among 
men. The evil serve by means of temptation, by 
means of the war they are permitted to wage against 
good, — an unwilling service, but a use which those 
who are in evil must serve, whether they will or not; 
for resistance is excited on the part of the regenerat- 
ing man, and in this resistance his redemption is 
nigh, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Therefore, " in 
patience possess ye your souls. And when ye shall see 
Jerusalem encompassed with armies, then know that 
the desolation thereof is nigh. ... So likewise when 
ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the 
kingdom of God is nigh at hand." (Luke 21: 19, 20, 
31.) Amen. 

Lessons: Deuteronomy 30. Luke 21:1-24. A. E. 121; or 

A. C. 5069, 70; or T. C. R. 96. 
Music: Liturgy, p. 560, 568, 573, 582, 593, 644. 
Prayers: Liturgy, nos. 137, 138. 



! 

I } 

THE TEN BLESSINGS. 

NINTH SERMON. 

"Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and 
persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against 
you falsely, for my sake. 9 ' (Matthew 5: 11.) 

We continue the subject of the spiritual tempta- 
tions of the church, or the conflict between the inter- 
nal and the external man. The conflict has now be- 
come grievous. It is a battle for life — not for natural, 
but for spiritual life. Hell as a threefold power is 
arrayed against the church in the effort to destroy it, 
but heaven assists. That the hells may not prevail, 
and spiritual life be wholly destroyed, all three heavens 
are opened and flow in to assist the church against 
the triple assault of hell. This assault, combining all 
the infernal forces, is expressed in the words of the 
text, " Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and 
persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against 
you falsely, for my sake." 

The Lord speaks later in this chapter of the three- 
fold power of hell as three degrees of hatred, in the 
following words, " Ye have heard that it was said by 
them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever 
shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment; but I say 
unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother 
without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment; 
and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be 
in danger of the council ; but whosoever shall say, Thou 
fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." (5: 21, 22.) 

The threefold character of hell, as consisting of three 
classes of malignant spirits, whose assault the church 
is to resist, separating itself from association with 

109 



no 



them, by shunning their diabolical evils, is also spoken 
of in the First Psalm, as follows: " Blessed is the man 
that walketh not in the counsel of the wicked, nor 
standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat 
of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the 
Lord, and in His law doth he meditate day and night.' 7 
As in the text, the man is said to be " blessed " who 
successfully resists this threefold assault of hell; that 
is, as to his spirit, he will be introduced into heaven by 
his delight in the truth of doctrine from the Word, the 
delight of the spiritual affection of truth, the source of 
eternal happiness to the angels in heaven. Those who 
are in the delight of this affection will conquer, be- 
cause the Lord is in it, and by it inspires man to resist 
the forces of hell. 

The text translated more literally would read as 
follows, " Blessed are ye, when they shall revile you; 
and persecute you, and shall say every evil word a- 
gainst you lying, because of me." The word translated 
falsely or lying may also be rendered liars. The con- 
trast is presented between the disciples of the Lord, on 
the one hand, and those who lie about them, on the 
other. The disciples are mentioned four times as being 
included in the pronouns ye and you] and the liars, or 
those who lie about them, are also mentioned four 
times, as being subjects of the verbs which are used. 
The Lord was addressing His disciples, and this is the 
sense of His w T ords, " Blessed are ye [the disciples] 
when they [the liars] shall revile you, and when they 
[the liars] shall persecute you, and when they [the 
liars] shall say every evil word against you, lying, be- 
cause of me." That is to say, it is because of me, your 
Lord, that the liars revile you, and persecute you, and 
say all manner of evil against you. In the preceding 
verse, the disciples are told that they are persecuted 
because they are just, because of the justice in which 



Ill 



they are; but a greater and more intense persecution 
follows, they who bring it are called liars, and it is now 
a war that is waged against the disciples, not because 
they are just, but because of Him, the Divine Teacher, 
Christ, who is Justice Itself, the Truth Itself, the 
Doctrine Itself. In the corresponding passage in Luke 
(6: 22), we are told that the assault is made against 
the Lord as the Son of Man, — " Blessed are ye, when 
men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you 
from their company, and shall reproach and cast out 
your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man." 
The Son of Man is the Lord in His Second Coming, 
revealing Himself in His Word as the Divine Doctrine, 
to establish a new Christian Church that will worship 
Him alone as the God of heaven and earth, — the con- 
text treating of the hatred and persecution of those 
who will then worship the Lord in heart and life. 

They who so persecute the disciples are in opposition 
to the Lord, in opposition to the truth of His Word; 
they say that the truth is false, and are therefore called 
haters and liars. 

They revile, persecute, and lie in the name of justice, 
in the name of the truth, and even in the name of the 
Lord; claiming to be the true representatives of the 
Lord, of justice and of righteousness; falsely asserting 
that the disciples are what they themselves really are, 
unrighteous, unjust, and deniers of the Lord and His 
Word. They are liars, they hate justice, righteousness 
and truth, yea, the Lord Himself, but veil their hatred 
under the appearance of faith in Him and in right- 
eousness of life. The word translated " falsely," or 
" lying," signifies to deceive, and they who are meant 
are in fact deceivers and hypocrites. In a general 
sense, those who are in this state among men in the world 
are understood, but in a more interior sense evil spirits 
are meant who in the other world, under the guise of 



112 



angels of light, have made to themselves false or seem- 
ing heavens. In a still more interior sense, which is the 
sense abstracted from persons, false doctrines are 
signified by " liars," — false doctrines which are made 
to appear as the very truths of heaven. 

The fact has been pointed out several times in these 
discourses, that the general subject of the Blessings is 
the establishment of the church by the implantation 
of the truth of doctrine, and the assault upon that truth 
by those who are in active opposition to it. Thus the 
temptation of the church as to truth of doctrine is also 
treated of, and runs through the series, even from the 
beginning. (See .4. E. 659.) The Blessings, therefore, 
in an entire idea, teach that those in whom the truth 
of doctrine is implanted will receive eternal life by 
means of the spiritual affection of truth in which they 
are. These are they that are blessed and receive the 
great reward in heaven, which is conjunction with the 
Lord by use and in happiness forever. 

The Lord was speaking to His disciples as the 
Teacher of men, and He was imparting the truth which 
was to bring salvation to mankind. It was no tem- 
poral kingdom that He came to establish, nor did He 
teach them concerning their temporal welfare. The 
world is full of books that treat of the temporal good 
of man, and they are being multiplied every day; for 
it appears that this is all that the mass of men are in- 
terested in or care for. But the Lord taught concern- 
ing the welfare of mankind in a kingdom where they 
were to live eternally; and it is this eternal welfare in 
an eternal kingdom that is meant by the word blessed, 
which the Lord repeated so many times in this early 
part of His discourse on the mountain. And the fact 
or eternal verity is now made clear that men are 
blessed even in their temptations, that even spiritual 
persecution is overruled and made to serve as an in- 



H3 



strumentality in the salvation of men, an instrumen- 
tality for the opening of heaven and introduction 
into it. 

In the eighth Blessing, the subject is concerning the 
spiritual persecution or spiritual temptation of the 
church in general. " Blessed are they that are per- 
secuted for the sake of justice." But now, in the ninth 
Blessing, we are told that this temptation is threefold, 
signified by revile, persecute, and speaking falsely. 
Also, in the eighth Blessing it is said that the perse- 
cution is for the sake of justice, but now that it is for 
the sake of Me, — Jesus Christ the Lord. It is because 
of Him that the disciples, or the men of the church, 
whom the disciples represent, are reviled, persecuted, 
and lied about. In reality the assault is upon the truth 
which the disciples or men of the church hold, and 
which they confess before men. This truth is the Lord 
with them. It is because of this truth, which is the 
Lord Himself present in the church, — it is because of 
this truth which they love and defend, that the church 
has to undergo spiritual persecution. The general 
subject of both verses, therefore, of the two Blessings 
now before us, is the active assault by evil spirits who 
are hypocrites, and of evil men whom they inspire, 
and who are like unto them, and the active defense of 
the truth by the loyal members of the church in both 
worlds, by those in both worlds who are in tEe spirit- 
ual affection of truth. As we have said, the assault is 
really upon the Divine Truth from the Lord out of 
heaven, and because of it and its presence in the 
church, and so upon those who love it because it is the 
truth, and who from love defend it. 

There are involved, also in the ninth Blessing, as we 
have shown, three degrees of the temptation of the 
church, or three degrees of assault upon its life, thus 
three classes of evil spirits who make the assault, and 



H4 



therefore three degrees of the church itself, and thus 
three degrees of the Divine Truth of the Word which 
makes the church. The assault upon the inmost life 
of the church, upon its love to the Lord and its charity 
toward the neighbor, is what is meant by " revile"; 
the assault upon its mediate life, upon its doctrine, 
its faith, upon its understanding of the Word, is meant 
by those who "persecute"; and the assault upon its 
ultimate life, upon its works and uses, is meant by 
those who "say all manner of evil falsely, for my 
sake." 

We have already intimated that the assault of the 
three hells upon the church involves the opening of 
the three heavens; and there is in fact an opening of 
the three heavens by the Lord in His Second Coming, 
or the opening of the three senses of the Word at that 
time. This the Lord has done, and the hells rise up 
to destroy the spiritual and celestial truth of the Word 
now revealed. The opening of the three heavens, or 
the three senses of the Word, is necessary at this day; 
for without this, as we are told, no flesh; could be 
saved. The assault of the entire hell to destroy the 
last remnant of spiritual life with men was thus fore- 
seen by the Lord, and provision was made by Him to 
meet it at once, in order that some men might be saved. 
The opening of the three heavens, or the three interior 
senses of the Word, is what is meant where John says 
in the Apocalypse, " And I heard a voice from heaven, 
as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a 
great thunder; and I heard the voice of harpers harp- 
ing with their harps." (14: 2.) A voice from heaven 
is revelation, which was first heard as the roaring of 
great waters, then as the sound of thunder, and finally 
as sweet music, — the playing on harps, and the singing 
of a song, — a song which had not been heard since the 
days of the Ancient Church; and hence it is called a 



US 



" new song/' which was sung by the whole heaven in 
glorification of the Lord, because He had come a 
second time into the world, proclaiming Himself the 
only God of heaven and earth, the only Teacher of 
Doctrine unto men. 

We have mentioned the fact that the subject of the 
Blessings as a whole is the implantation of the truth 
of doctrine from the Lord by His Word, and that this 
implantation is attended at every step by temptation, 
which is spiritual combat or resistance to the falsities 
which assail the truth of the church. This assault 
upon the doctrine, upon the faith of the church, upon 
its understanding of the Word, is especially signified 
by persecution, and is the principal subject or leading 
idea in the verse which precedes the text, " Blessed are 
they that are persecuted for the sake of justice." 
But as all things are threefold, or in a trine, so it is 
with the temptations of the church, and this because 
the life of the church itself is threefold or trinal. 
And so we have now presented to our view the assault 
that is made by the hells upon the entire life of the 
church from its inmost to its ultimate, upon its charity, 
upon its faith, and upon its uses or its works. 

Hitherto the subject was the assault upon its faith, 
or its doctrine, which is signified by the term " perse- 
cution' 7 ; but now a more grievous assault is made 
upon the church and those who love the truth of the 
church. They are not only persecuted, but they are 
reviled, and they are not only persecuted and reviled, 
but all manner of evil is spoken against them. They 
are reviled for their charity, which is the love of the 
truth for the sake of the truth; they are persecuted 
for their faith, which is faith in the truth of God, a 
faith which rejects the conceits of human intelligence; 
and all manner of evil is said against them because of 
their application of truth to the uses of life, and be- 



Ii6 



cause they willingly bear testimony to the truth before 
men, are ever ready to confess to the world all things 
of their faith in God and His Word. They are there- 
fore reviled, persecuted, and lied about; that is, the 
truth which they represent is reviled, persecuted, and 
lied about, — all because of the Lord and His presence 
in His Word, which presence He reveals, and which 
revelation is received and loved by those who are to 
constitute His church. They are reviled because of 
their love, they are persecuted because of their faith, 
and their very testimony is turned against them and 
made an offence in the eyes of men, because they 
would that all men should be as they, lovers and doers 
of the truth of the Word of God. 

The word translated revile signifies to censure, in- 
veigh against, upbraid, to insult with opprobrious 
language, to bring reproach or disgrace upon any one. 
It signifies nearly the same as the word which is else- 
where translated to blaspheme, and which is applied 
especially to those who bring scandal or disgrace upon 
the Word of the Lord, and upon the Lord who is in 
His Word and who is the Word, and at the same 
time upon those who love the Lord and His Word, 
and who, because they love the Lord, are in spiritual 
good or charity towards the neighbor. 

As we have just said, the word blaspheme has nearly 
the same meaning in the Greek language as the word 
revile, and it is therefore legitimate for us to apply 
what is said in the Writings about blasphemy to the 
word revile, since the two words are so similar in their 
signification. Indeed, we read {A. E. 778) that "in 
human languages, as also in the Hebrew, there are 
various words by which blasphemings against God and 
Divine Truth are expressed; such as calumnies, re- 
proaches, ignominies, taunts, revilings, vituperations, 
witty sayings, mockings, jeers, and many more." In 



ii 7 



fact, any term of human language which can be used 
to bring ridicule or insult or scandal upon the Divine 
Truth, or upon the Lord who is the Truth, would 
signify the same, or nearly the same, as blaspheme] 
and so it is with the word revile in the text. 

Concerning blasphemy, we read that by "bringing 
the name of God into what is vain" is signified 
blasphemy and profanation, and that " blasphemy 
takes place when the things of the Word or of the 
doctrine of faith, thus the things which are holy, are 
held in derision, and are dragged down to unclean 
earthly things, and so are defiled." {A. C. 8882.) 
Again, in explaining the words, " Thou shalt not curse 
God," we are told that by this is signified " that 
Divine Truths are not to be blasphemed, as appears 
from the signification of 6 cursing,' as denoting to 
blaspheme, for they who blaspheme also curse. The 
reason why it denotes that Divine Truths are not to 
be blasphemed is because ' God/ in the internal sense, 
is the Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord." (A. 
C. 9221.) In the next number (A. C. 9222), the 
words are explained, "Neither shalt thou revile the 
prince among thy people," by which is signified that 
"neither is the doctrine of truth to be blasphemed, 
appears from the signification of ' prince/ as denoting 
the primary truths of the church." It is stated further 
that " Divine Truth is the Word and the doctrine of 
truth from the Word," and that " they who in heart 
deny this truth blaspheme it, even though they praise 
it and preach it with their lips." 

We are told further (A. i?. 571, 692) that blasphemy 
is the denial of the Divinity of the Lord and of the 
holiness of the Word, and that it occurs when doctrine 
is not taken from the Word, but is hatched out from 
human intelligence; and that this latter is blasphemy, 
because the church is from no other source than from 



Ii8 



the Word, and is according to the understanding of the 
Word. If, therefore, a church comes into existence 
from any other source than the Word and doctrine 
from the Word, the name of God is blasphemed; for 
the Lord is then denied in heart, even when He is 
preached and outwardly confessed in the worship of 
the church; and it is said of such a church that it is 
" full of names of blasphemy," that is, it is filled 
with the sphere of profanation. Hence by the word 
revile, as used in the text, is signified the opening of 
the hell of blasphemy and profanation, and the in- 
flux of scandals from that hell against the Lord and 
His Word, by which every vestige of the church is 
destroyed, except with those who receive power from 
the Lord to resist and overcome that profane and un- 
hallowed sphere. 

The signification of persecution has been presented 
in the discourse on the eighth Blessing, wherein it was 
shown that by those who are " persecuted for the sake 
of justice " is meant the assault that is made upon the 
doctrine of revelation, the doctrine of Divine Truth, 
doctrine from the Word, the assault being made by 
those who have applied their human intelligence to 
Divine Revelation, and therefore falsifying and per- 
verting it. For no man can understand the Word, or 
doctrine from the Word, unless he be in illustration 
from the Lord, unless the light of the Word itself shine 
in his mind as a lamp to guide him in his reading, in 
his study, and in his meditation. If he be not in illus- 
tration from the Lord, his mind will be filled with the 
light of the world, which is the light of human intel- 
ligence, and with this false light to guide him, he can 
do no otherwise than falsify and pervert the Word of 
God. Such a man is not in illustration from the Lord 
because he is not in the good of love to the Lord, — for 
it is love that kindles its own light in the mind, — and 



ii 9 



he is not in good of love to the Lord because he has 
not inwardly kept the commandments, although he 
may have kept them outwardly to be seen of men, for 
the sake of being regarded as an upright, pious, and 
religious man. 

The light of human intelligence will necessarily 
falsify the Word, and doctrine from the Word, because 
the fires of heaven have not been enkindled in a mind 
where the pride of human intelligence dwells; for 
where there is no fire there is no light; and where the 
fire of heaven is not in the will or heart of man, the fire 
of hell is there, and the fire of hell is hatred of the 
neighbor. Such a man, as we have said, cannot do 
otherwise than pervert the Word and hate those who 
are in the true understanding of the Word, who are 
in this because of the love of heaven that is in their 
hearts, by virtue of an inward keeping of the com- 
mandments of God. Such hatred becoming active is 
what is called " persecution." The persecution that 
is treated of here is not so much a persecution as to 
the natural, material life, such as the early Christian 
martyrs suffered; it is not so much the confiscation of 
one's property and natural possessions, or the taking 
away of one's natural life; but it is a spiritual perse- 
cution; and a spiritual persecution is an attack upon 
the spiritual doctrine of truth which one holds and 
loves, presenting false arguments and false conclusions 
against the truth of one's faith, presenting with skill 
and cunning the falsified truths of the Word, bringing 
the mind into doubt and anxiety as to whether the 
truth that has been believed and loved is really true, 
the genuine truth of the Word. This doubt and 
anxiety is what is called spiritual temptation, and when 
the assault is resisted, and the truth defended because 
of the love of it for its own sake, it is called spiritual 
combat or spiritual war. In the eighth Blessing, the 



120 



Lord said to the disciples that they would be " perse- 
cuted for the sake of justice/ 7 by which is meant that 
those who are in the faith of genuine truth desire to 
bring this truth into life, and that on this account they 
are assailed. If they hold their doctrine merely as an 
opinion or speculative theory, they are not disturbed; 
but because they wish to bring it forth in the fruits 
of their own life, and ardently desire that others should 
do the same, their faith is assailed, and the attack is 
followed up and persisted in with continuous energy. 
This is spiritual persecution. 

But in the ninth Blessing, the element of blasphemy 
and profanation appears, and is set forth in the words 
of the text, especially in the first word — revile; and, 
according to a principle of all revelation, what is first 
said in a series enters into and rules in all that follows. 
As we have seen, the word revile, which is essentially 
the same as blaspheme, is the assault that is made upon 
the very essential love of the church, which is love to 
the Lord, which assault is made from the hells of the 
profaners of the Word. The second word is per- 
secuie, — " Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, 
and persecute you." It is the same word that is used 
in the previous Blessing, " Blessed are they that are 
persecuted for the sake of justice/ 7 but it has not here 
identically the same meaning, because it is modified 
by the series in which it comes; and the series treats 
of the profanation of the Word, and the assault upon 
the faith of the church by those who profane the 
Word. The persecution, therefore, is of a more ma- 
lignant character than the former persecution. 

We are told that the sphere of the profanation of 
the Word is a suffocative sphere, like some horrid, pun- 
gent, noxious gas, which, entering the lungs, paralyzes 
respiration, and poisons the blood. The lungs, and 
the respiration of the lungs, correspond to the under- 



121 



standing and the activities of the thought of the un- 
derstanding. Thinking is spiritual breathing. The 
sphere of profanation entering the mind paralyzes the 
thought, producing a state of spiritual suffocation, 
from which there is no deliverance except by the 
Divine Power of the Lord. The former attack or per- 
secution is mild as compared to this, and is relied upon 
as a last resort of the hells to destroy the faith and 
doctrine of the church. It is indeed a last resort, but 
there is still another which is meant by the words, 
"And say all manner of evil against you falsely for 
my sake"; or more literally, " And say every evil word 
against you, lying because of me." This is the third 
term of the temptation described in this verse, the 
ultimate or last form of it. 

By evil word is meant the same in general that is 
meant by scandal in the letter of the Word, especially 
in the New Testament. It is usually translated 
offence, and literally means a stumbling-block, which 
latter is defined in the English Dictionary to be " any 
obstacle of hindrance; something that may cause one 
to err or fall." In the same, scandal is defined to be 
the " heedless or malicious repetition and dissemina- 
tion of evil reports; in law, malicious defamation by 
word of mouth." Behind scandal, or an evil word in 
regard to another, as we see from the definition, there 
is usually malice, which also is defined to be a wil- 
fully and deliberately formed design to do another an 
injury. Thus the evil word or scandal is not an un- 
premeditated word, and is well expressed by the phrase 
" malice aforethought." 

As we have seen, the evil that reigns in the sphere 
of profanation is malice or malignity of the worse kind, 
producing, where it enters, paralysis of the mental 
faculties. It is this malice that inspires and produces 
the scandal or evil word of the text. As used in the 



122 



letter of the Word, and in the Writings, the term 
scandal must be understood as covering a broader 
field than the common usage of the word. In general, 
it is false assertion concerning the character of an- 
other; and more than this, false assertion concerning 
the Lord and the Divine things of the Word and the 
church. The Lord was merely a man like other men, 
having a human father; the Word is a human pro- 
duction, inferior to the standard works of literature; 
the heavenly doctrine is human in its origin, and im- 
moral in its teaching; the Revelator for the New 
Church was insane; the men of the new Christian 
Church believe in and practice free love. These are 
among the innumerable instances of what is meant 
by " scandal " or " offense " in the Word, or by an 
" evil word " said against a disciple. 

A scandal or evil word, when it is said, closes argu- 
ment. The disposition of the mind that hears it is to 
accept it without investigation, and there is perhaps 
no further thought concerning it. It is like an ob- 
stacle suddenly thrown in front of a man, causing him 
to stumble and fall, — perhaps into a ditch or pit, out 
of which he may not be able to rise. For the sphere 
of profanation, the sphere of blasphemy, — a sphere 
of malignity, — is persuasive, and the ordinary mind 
is defenceless against it. This is the final effort of the 
hells to destroy the church, and its purpose is to close 
the human mind so that no light from heaven may 
enter into it, and that dense darkness may reign 
where light should be. It ceases to be an open, honor- 
able, direct attack upon doctrine held and believed, 
but it is an indirect attack upon the same doctrine 
by attacking the character of those who hold and pro- 
claim it. If they are destroyed, then the doctrine 
has no foothold among men. It is like destroying the 
foundations; for the church is founded in men, in the 



123 



men who receive it and love it. If there are none left 
who believe and love the doctrine revealed from 
heaven, that doctrine is no longer present in the world, 
and there is no longer any church on earth. But this 
cannot be, since the Lord is present and reigns in His 
church among men. 

In the Eleventh Psalm, the question is asked, "If 
the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous 
do? " By the " righteous " or " the just " are meant 
the angels of heaven, and heaven could not continue 
if the church on earth should be destroyed. But the 
answer is given that the church will not be destroyed, 
even though it be in the midst of temptations. " The 
Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord's throne is in 
heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids try, the children 
of men." (Ps. 11:3, 4.) "For evil doers shall be 
cut off ; but they that wait upon the Lord shall inherit 
the earth." (Ps. 37:9.) Amen. 

Lessons: Psalm 74. Revelation 12. A. C. 1695. 
Music: Liturgy, p. 510, 564, 565, 583, 630. 
Prayers: Liturgy, nos. 131, 132. 



THE TEN BLESSINGS. 



TENTH SERMON. 

"Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for great is your 
reward in heaven/' (Matthew 5: 12.) 

In the delight of spiritual affection is all heavenly 
happiness, because that delight is the activity of spirit- 
ual and celestial love, or of love to the neighbor and 
love to the Lord. This delight has been expressed 
from the beginning of the present series by the term 
Blessed repeated several times; but it now takes on 
a threefold expression in the words Rejoice and 
be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in 
heaven. The corresponding passage in Luke (6: 
23) is also threefold, as follows, " Rejoice ye in that 
day, and leap for joy; for, behold, great is your 
reward in heaven" By rejoice is signified the delight 
of the affection of truth, by be exceeding glad, and 
also by leap for joy, is signified the delight of the af- 
fection of good, and by the reward in heaven is signi- 
fied the delight of the affection of use. First truth, 
then good, and finally the two together in use; in these 
three is all the happiness of heaven, coming as the 
result of spiritual labor and conflict. The 'dea of the 
conflict is also expressed in a threefold manner, in the 
verse preceding the text, where we find the terms 
revile, persecute, and speaking all manner of evil. 
First the persecution, which is threefold; and now the 
triumph or victory in the reward of heaven, which is 
also threefold. 

From the beginning, all through the series, a duality 
has appeared. Each Blessing is expressed in two dis- 



124 



125 



tinct sentences or parts, the first of which has relation 
to truth, or the affection of truth, and the second to 
good, or the affection of good; and now the third is 
added, — use, which is the end in all from the begin- 
ning, the inmost and the ultimate of all, the first and 
last of the Word, of the church, and of heaven, — the 
very heavenly reward itself. 

The reward follows the persecution, but let us note 
carefully that the reward is not on account of the per- 
secution or temptation, but on account of overcoming 
in temptation. The reward is for the combat, and not 
for the pain of the combat. It is not for what we have 
suffered and endured, but for our resistance in it, that 
the victory is given. Suffering is a condition, not an 
end. When the body recovers from disease, it is not 
because of the pain that health has returned, but be- 
cause of the resistance of the body to that which has 
assailed its life. Temptation is to the spirit of man 
what pain is to his body; it is the anxiety and distress 
which is felt when man, as a spirit, and from the love 
of his spirit, resists that which assails its life. As in 
the body, the pain ceases when health returns, so in 
the spirit, temptation ceases when the victory is 
gained; then there is happiness and rejoicing, and the 
spirit enters into its reward. 

The purpose in the combat is that the internal may 
subdue the external, that what is of heaven in the in- 
teriors of man may subdue what is of the world in his 
exteriors. But an internal must first be formed. 
Heaven must descend into the interiors of the natural, 
and form itself there, before it can proceed to the con- 
quest of the external man. Hence the Blessings treat 
first of the formation of this new internal, or of this 
new mind, of this new will and new understanding, of 
this new love and charity, of this new faith, of this 
new conscience, in the interior of the natural mind. 



126 



This, as we are taught, must first be formed, and until 
it is formed the evils of the external man cannot be 
subdued, and regeneration take place. The final sub- 
jugation of the external, and bringing it into correspon- 
dence with the internal, is now effected; and the state 
of this correspondence, which is the heavenly state, is 
the subject of this Tenth Blessing, which we are now 
to consider. Let us now endeavor to enter more fully 
into the spiritual sense of this final Blessing. 

The Lord said to His disciples that they were now 
to rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for great would be 
their reward in heaven. The words translated exceed- 
ing glad are usually translated in the Writings by the 
word emit, and are expressive of a higher and more 
intense degree of joy or happiness than the word trans- 
lated rejoice. We have seen that the ruling affection in 
the Blessings is the spiritual affection of truth; and 
it receives various modes of expression in the series 
throughout. Here the word rejoice is used, the first 
word of the verse, including in it all that precedes, 
but having associated with it a term of a higher and 
more interior signification than itself, expressed by the 
phrase be exceeding glad, or extdt; and the higher 
thing that is signified is the spiritual affection of good. 
The affection of truth indeed comes first in the order 
of regeneration, and afterwards the affection of good, 
or a new understanding of truth comes first, and by 
it a new will of good is formed. It is this new under- 
standing formed by the spiritual affection of truth, 
and the delight of that affection, that is expressed by 
the word rejoice; and it is this new will formed by the 
spiritual affection of good, and the delight of that af- 
fection, that is expressed by the words be exceeding 
glad or extdt. These two make the internal man; that 
is, the new understanding, with its affection and de- 
light, which is the affection and delight of truth, and 



127 



the new will, with its affection and delight, which is 
the affection and delight of good; and the Lord ex- 
pressed to His disciples the heavenly happiness there 
is in this internal state of truth and good in the inter- 
nal man by the words, " Rejoice and be exceeding 
glad." 

But the new understanding and the new will, now 
conjoined as one, have now come forth and subdued 
the external man, removing its lusts and delights, its 
falsifications of truth, its perverted principles of life. 
This has not been accomplished except by a long con- 
test or conflict between the internal and external man, 
in which the external man has resisted the internal ; in 
which, the falsities and evils of the external have 
fought against the truths and goods of the internal; 
in which, evil spirits have entrenched themselves, hop- 
ing thereby to secure permanently a foothold upon the 
earth; and in which, men in the world have co-oper- 
ated with evil spirits, and assisted in the assault upon 
the truths and goods of the internal man. For the 
greatest and most grievous temptations of the church, 
and of the individual, take place when men in the out- 
er world co-operate with evil spirits of the inner world 
in a combined attack upon the principles of the church 
stirring and rousing into activity the evils that are in 
the external man of the members of the church. If 
anything wili destroy the church, it is this combined 
assault that will accomplish it; and this attack has 
power because the falsities and evils that are in evil 
spirits, and in men like unto them, are also in the ex- 
ternal natural of the regenerating man. But when 
these are removed, the united forces of hell, and of 
the world, have no longer any power; man is at rest in 
the heavenly state, and the church, as the Lord's 
heaven on earth, is in the fruition of its life, resting in 
the happiness and peace of its uses. This is what is 



128 



meant by the words of the text, " Rejoice, and be ex- 
ceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven." 

The new understanding now occupies the external 
man and reigns in its thought, and in the expression 
of its thought in speech; and the new will also reigns 
in the external, in all its affection, and in the ex- 
pression of its affection in the actions of the body; 
that is, the new understanding and the new will reign 
in the uses performed by word and deed, and there is 
happiness and delight in the uses so performed. This 
is heaven, this is the heavenly state, which to some ex- 
tent is felt in the natural world, and experienced in 
fullness in the spiritual world after death, and this is 
what is meant by the words, " Great is your reward in 
heaven." For the reward of heaven is freedom and 
happiness in a life of use. 

The word here translated reward (Greek, rnisthos), 
signifies pay, wages, salary, rent, profit, income, gift, 
and so reward; and in a bad sense, paying back, re- 
quital, punishment. The corresponding word in the 
Latin (merces) is similar in meaning, and is derived 
from a verb (mereo) signifying to deserve, to merit, 
also to earn, get, obtain, gain, acquire. From the 
Latin come the English words merchant and merchan- 
dise, or that which is acquired by trading. It thus 
has in it the general idea of what returns to or upon 
any one, whether good or evil, as the result of work, 
labor, effort, or output of any kind. The word thus 
came to be applied in the Christian Churchy — and it 
is so understood according to the appearance in the 
literal sense of the Word — to the reward after death of 
heavenly happiness and bliss, coming as a gift to him 
who has been faithful in the things of a religious life 
while living in this world; also to the punishment 
that comes upon him who lives a life of wickedness 
and sin. The idea of merit came at length to be ap- 



129 



plied to the idea of reward, and the faithful were 
taught to believe that heavenly happiness would be 
given to them as a reward or gift on account of their 
merit or deserving arising out of life of piety on earth. 
The evil also would receive the reward which they 
have merited, in the punishment by the fires of hell 
always burning, tormenting, and torturing them for- 
ever. 

We have already indicated, however, that the re- 
ward of heaven is not anything that is arbitrarily 
given in return for works done while on earth, espe- 
cially the works of piety, but that it is nothing else 
than the legitimate result, in the life of charity in the 
will and faith in the understanding, devoid of all idea 
of merit or self-deserving; that it is nothing else than 
the delight of use from the love of use, or love appear- 
ing as use. It is the delight in doing without thought 
of self or of what one merits and deserves. It is the de- 
light in giving forth by work or use without reflection 
or deliberation on what one is to receive in return for 
what he does. It is like a man who works from the 
love of his work, and not merely for the pay or wages 
he is to receive; for it is well known that he who works 
from the love of his work is delighted with the work 
itself, and that the salary or income is not the first 
consideration with him, however desirable such acqui- 
sition may be for the support of natural life. It is 
well known, also, that those who succeed are for the 
most part those who love their work, who take an in- 
terest in the work itself, and who thus do not rebel 
against work, and feel themselves driven to it merely 
for the return in money they are to receive for it. In 
fact, the latter state is more like that in hell, where 
the evil are driven to labor by the hope of reward or 
the fear of punishment; and the former state is like 
that in heaven, where the angels are in the constant 



130 



activities of use from the love of use itself, where the 
delight of use is their chief delight, and the only de- 
light that is heaven to them; with the difference, how- 
ever, that the uses which the angels perform, and in 
which they have the delight of their life, are the spirit- 
ual rather than the natural uses of charity. Natural 
use has in view natural sustenance in the world, and 
the natural good of society, the temporal good of men ; 
but spiritual use has for its end the spiritual good of 
men, the eternal salvation of the human race, since 
this is the end with the Lord Himself, imparted by 
Him to the angels of heaven. This end, therefore, 
reigns in every use in heaven. 

The product of natural use is the reward of natural 
acquisition, — property, land, honors, the wealth of 
this world. These also are blessings when they are 
not made the chief end, but are regarded as instru- 
mentalities for higher uses. These blessings come ac- 
cording to needs, as seen by Providence, — the result 
of work or natural use performed from the love of it. 
And they may even come where wealth itself is the 
end; but such wealth is only temporary; it does not 
last longer than the life of the body, and cannot be 
taken into the other world. The only wealth that sur- 
vives natural death is the wealth or riches of the mind, 
the acquisitions of the spirit. 

There is, indeed, a wider view of the reward of nat- 
ural use than the mere acquisition of material wealth. 
There are certain mental acquirements that come as 
a reward in the performance of the uses of the world. 
There is no physical or material reward without a cor- 
responding mental reward or acquisition; for there is 
such a thing as natural intelligence, and there are 
other related qualities of the natural mind and charac- 
ter. These are given to men by means of the use which 
they perform; and every man who does systematic 



I3i 



work with energy and industry is rewarded by certain 
mental acquisitions, certain mental possessions, the 
properties of natural* reason and intelligence. These 
are the real rewards of natural use. The man who 
does not work cannot come into these rewards of use, 
cannot become an intelligent or rational man of the 
world. His mind remains dull, stupid, undeveloped. 
All the work done before actual use begins, such as 
the work of natural education, is but a preparation for 
use, and is thus but a preparation for intelligence. 
For let us repeat that real intelligence comes only by 
work; let us repeat that natural work is not only for 
the acquisition of material wealth, but also for the ac- 
quisition of intelligence; and indeed one may obtain 
natural intelligence by work, even if he does not ac- 
quire wealth. This is true of a number of men. 

Natural education is the storing of the memory, the 
training of the faculties, the provision of instrumen- 
talities, preparatory to the performance of use. But 
these do not bring intelligence, still less wisdom. If a 
man stops here, he is in a state of arrested development 
and he will be placed among the herd of the dumb, 
driven cattle of the world. He will have no real mind, 
no real human understanding, — not even a natural 
understanding, except perhaps some faint resemblance 
of it, so long as he associates with other men. 
He must proceed to work; he must apply the instru- 
mentalities he has acquired by his early education, or 
he will be a fool among the workers of the world. 

The thing to which we wish to call attention in re- 
spect to natural use is this, that it is the delight of 
work from the love of it that opens and expands the 
faculties of the mind ; and this is the reason that those 
who work, especially those who love work, and take 
delight in work, are the men who reach the highest 
degree of natural intelligence, who receive the real re- 



132 



ward of the world ? the real acquisitions that are of 
value among men who reach the highest positions of 
dignity and eminence. 

It is because of this instrumentality of delight, — the 
delight of work, — in opening the mind and expanding 
all its faculties, that the delight of use in heaven is 
called the heavenly reward. It is not because of the 
delight of use alone that it is called reward, but 
because it is the means of stimulating all the faculties 
of the mind, the means by which is all intelligence 
and wisdom in heaven, — all understanding, all per- 
ception, all illustration to the angels, to all who in- 
habit the kingdom of the Lord. As in the world, men 
have all real natural intelligence by means of work, 
by means of the delight of work from the love of it, 
so it is in heaven, — except that the work or use in 
heaven is spiritual, and not natural, and thus that the 
intelligence and wisdom in heaven is spiritual, and not 
natural. And we see herein the reason why it is said 
in the Writings that by " reward " in the text, — the 
" reward in heaven " which will be " great " to those 
who overcome in temptations, is meant salvation. For 
it is just this thing we are talking about that is sal- 
vation, — this thing of spiritual delight in use, stimu- 
lating and opening all the faculties of the angelic 
mind, bringing to the angels a continual increase of 
intelligence and wisdom. 

This is salvation, because in it a man is saved from 
the opposite state in hell. There is no delight of use 
from the love of use in hell. The devils have no love 
of use; and where there is no love there is no delight, 
and thus no happiness. And where there is no delight 
of use from the love of it, there is no opening, but 
rather a closing of the mind, more and more. In- 
stead of a love of use, the devils have a hatred of use; 
and where use or work is hated, — as we see dimly rep- 



133 



resented in the world where men hate work, — there 
can be no intelligence, no perception, no enlighten- 
ment of the mind, naught but dense ignorance, folly, 
stupidity, and insanity. It is salvation from this state 
that is called the heavenly reward, a salvation that 
begins by the gradual formation of a love of use while 
man still lives in the world of nature. It is well known 
and often remarked that work keeps a man cut of mis- 
chief. It saves him from many of the ills of human 
life. Extend this idea into the other world after death, 
and we can see what salvation is, the salvation that 
keeps men from the eternal mischie: and misery of 
hell, by introducing them into the eternal work and 
use of heaven, and into all the acquisitions of use in 
heaven. Hence the fulness of meaning in the Lord's 
words to His disciples, and to all men who would be 
saved from the mischief of hell, and who are willing to 
fight to be saved from it, " Rejoice, and be exceeding 
glad; for great is your reward in heaven." 

Now there must be with men not only natural 
work from the love of it, — for the sake of the acqui- 
sitions of natural intelligence, — but there must also 
be the beginnings of spiritual work, and thus a prep- 
aration while in the body for spiritual uses after death. 
For he who would enter into the kingdom of heaven in 
the spiritual world must have something of that king- 
dom in him before he enters that world. Spiritual 
work while still in the world consists in the acquisition 
of the truth of doctrine from the Word, and in combat 
from that doctrine, and for it, against the falsities of 
evil which rise up from hell, — from the hell of the 
natural man. This combat from doctrine introduces to 
spiritual use, when man, — fighting from the Lord in 
doctrine, — overcomes in the combat of temptation. 
It introduces him into the delight of spiritual use, and 
thereby into the sphere of angelic intelligence and 



134 



wisdom, which will be relatively obscure while in 
the body, but immensely full and active after death* 
for great shall be your reward in heaven. This is 
taught throughout the Blessings; this is what is meant 
by blessing which is so often spoken of and repeated; 
and finally, it is openly spoken of in the text as the 
reward in heaven which those are to receive who over- 
come in the combats of temptation, — the reward of 
use. 

In the explanation of the text given in the Writings, 
we are told that by the words " Rejoice, and be ex- 
ceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven " is 
signified, in general, heaven and its joy to those who 
are in the spiritual affection of truth, for they alone 
fight and conquer because the Lord is in that affection, 
who resists and conquers for man in the combats of 
temptation. (A. E. 695.) This introduces us to the 
subject of redemption, or the redeeming work which 
the Lord accomplishes in the regenerating man, and 
in the church in the process of its growth and develop- 
ment. In fact, the Blessings, which we have been con- 
sidering, treat in their inmost sense of this redeeming 
work of the Lord, treat of the Lord's part in the work 
— the Divine essential work — in the regeneration of 
man and in the establishment of the church. 

When the Lord was in the world, visibly among 
men, He performed a universal work of judgment and 
redemption in the spiritual world, subjugating the 
hells, bringing the heavens into order, and establishing 
the beginnings of a new spiritual church on the earth; 
and in order that this new spiritual church might con- 
tinue to be established, the work of judgment and re- 
demption also continued, and is to continue forever. 
Every man who is saved must first be redeemed, and 
the church itself must be continuously redeemed from 
the power of hell, in order that it may become more 



135 



and more a spiritual church on the earth. The Bless- 
ings, in their inmost sense, treat of this Divine work 
of judgment and redemption, and of the process by 
which the Lord successively redeems the church and 
the man of the church, separating him from hell, and 
finally introducing tim into heaven. 

In the Blessings we learn that the Lord redeems 
man by first instructing him in truths of doctrine 
from the Word. This is what is meant by the words 
which introduce the Blessings, " And He opened His 
mouth, and taught them, saying." When the truth is 
taught, the Teacher Himself is present in the truth 
which He teaches, inspiring into the truth received 
by those who are " poor in spirit," who acknowledge 
their ignorance and are willing to be taught — inspiring 
into them the spiritual affection of truth. This affec- 
tion then becomes the inmost of the church, and the 
Lord is in that affection, imparting the power to re- 
sist the assaults of evil spirits; and as there is combat, 
and in the degree of the combat on the part of man, 
the Lord overcomes for him, and disperses the evil 
spirits who infest him, casting them into hell, and thus 
separating him from them, introducing him into 
heaven — for redemption is nothing else than the judg- 
ment which separates the regenerating men of the 
church in both worlds from the societies of evil spirits, 
who are in the world of spirits, dispersing those soci- 
eties and casting its members into hell. This judg- 
ment and redemption is going on continually in the 
world of spirits — the casting into hell of the evil spirits 
which environ and threaten the destruction of the 
church. This final triumph, and the salvation which 
follows redemption, is what is meant by the words of 
the text, " Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for great 
is your reward in heaven." And indeed there is no 
rejoicing, no exultation, like that of men when there 



136 



comes to them after death the realization of a release 
from the power of evil spirits, and a realization of 
introduction into heaven; for then, as the affection 
of truth has been the inmost of the church, the affec- 
tion of good becomes the inmost of heaven, and they 
will forever be inspired by the delight of use in heaven, 
they will forever rejoice and be exceeding glad, for 
great will be their everlasting reward. Amen. 

Lessons: Deuteronomy 10: 6-22. Matthew 10: 16-42. A. C. 
9981-9984. 

Music: Liturgy, p. 503, 533, 568, 614, 659. Hymnal, p. 144, 

147, 151. 
Prayers: Liturgy, nos. 150, 151. 



THE TEN BLESSINGS. 

ELEVENTH SERMON. 

" For so persecuted they the prophets which were 
before you/' (Matthew 5:12.) 

It is a principle of the Divine Word that what is first 
said in any given series is universal therein, and reigns 
throughout to the end. We have seen this rule illus- 
trated in the series of Blessings, in the introduction to 
which we are told that the Lord opened His mouth 
and taught His disciples. To open His mouth and 
teach, when said of the Lord, is to open His Word and 
reveal true doctrine from it, in order that a church 
may be formed in the world by means of doctrine so 
revealed, in order that a church may be formed with 
those who receive this doctrine in heart and life. But 
the truth of doctrine cannot be impressed upon the 
mind, upon the internal mind, unless it be received in 
a humble and willing spirit, and man acknowledges 
that he can be taught by the Lord alone through reve- 
lation from His Word. Hence the first Blessing 
speaks of the " poor in spirit," who are they that are 
affected by truth for the sake of the truth itself, and 
who are therefore in the spiritual affection of truth, 
that affection by which the internal man is opened, 
and which is assailed in the combats of temptation; 
which latter, therefore, is also treated of in the series. 
For whenever there is any spiritual opening in the re- 
generating man, the opposite is at once present by per- 
mission of the Lord, in order that the reception of the 
truth may be broad, expansive and yielding; and not 
hard, narrow and resisting. The opposite is therefore 
permitted to be present, or spirits who are in the op- 
posite, introducing doubts by which are inaugurated 



137 



138 



the anxieties of spiritual temptation, and which are 
not removed except through a series of bitter tribu- 
lations. These tribulations of the church, experienced 
by those who are in the spiritual affection of truth, 
are also treated of in the series of the Blessings, and 
appear prominently at the close, in the use of the word 
persecution, which is brought upon those who love 
the truth because it is the truth. 

Another principle of Divine Revelation now comes 
to view, namely, that whatever reigns in any given 
series, as its universal, appears at its close. We have 
seen that the ruling idea in the present series is that 
those are redeemed or regenerated by the Lord who 
receive the truth of Doctrine from Him, and live 
according to it, and who therefore must of necessity 
undergo a succession of temptation combats, or spirit- 
ual labors, by which the truth is established, or im- 
planted in the internal man. The blessing which 
comes as a reward of combat, as the triumph of vic- 
tory, to him who perseveres to the end, now appears 
at the close, and is spoken of as the " reward in 
heaven," coupled with the joy and gladness that at- 
tends a life of use in the kingdom of the Lord. 

As we have stated, temptation is treated of from 
the beginning of the Blessings, though it does not 
appear prominently at first; still it is present, since 
evil spirits assail even in the initiament of the church, 
endeavoring to strangle or choke its life, or to devour 
the man-child as soon as it is born. This temptation, 
this persecution of the woman which brought forth the 
man-child, is involved, though not openly expressed, 
in the first Blessing of the series, " Blessed are the 
poor in spirit." For none are " poor in spirit " except 
those who are humbled by temptations. All others 
are proud in spirit, filled with the pride or conceit of 
human intelligence, attributing their intelligence to 
themselves and not to the Lord. This element of 



139 



temptation, present throughout, becomes prominent 
at the close, and is openly spoken of in the words, 

Blessed are they that are persecuted for the sake of 
justice. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, 
and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against 
you, falsely, for my sake;" and finally in the words 
of the text, " For so persecuted they the prophets 
which were before you." 

It will be noted that now, at the close of the Bless- 
ings, the Lord speaks of those who follow Him as 
prophets, and not as disciples; and in the beginning of 
the series which follows the Blessings, they, as proph- 
ets, are called the " salt of the earth." The prophets in 
old time were they who proclaimed the truth, even 
in the presence of kings and rulers, even in the 
presence of a hostile civil power, and on that 
account were persecuted. The disciples them- 
selves, as apostles, fulfilled this role of the prophets, 
even to the martyr's grave; and we are told that on 
this account they were permitted after death, to wear a 
martyr's crown, — a badge of the ~eward of victory. 
The prophets, then, are they who confess the truth, 
and who openly proclaim it before men, in confessing 
and proclaiming the Lord in His coming to save man- 
kind. They speak the truth openly, and conceal 
nothing. These, and no others, are the true prophets 
of the Lord; these, and no others, are called the " salt 
of the earth," and the " light of the world;" and the 
church that is established by the doctrine so pro- 
claimed is spoken of as a " city set upon a mountain, 
which cannot be hid;" for, as is added," men do not 
light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a can- 
dlestick, that it may give light to all in the house;" 
and the disciples, who are to become apostles and 
prophets, are exhorted to let their light shine before 
men, " that they may see your good works, and glorify 
your Father which is in heaven." 



140 



The disciples were told, in the closing words of the 
Blessings, that they would be persecuted as the pro- 
phets who were before them had been persecuted. By 
this is meant, in the historical sense of the words, that 
the disciples, in their work as apostles and evangelists 
of the coming of the Lord, would be persecuted as the 
prophets of the Jewish church had been, because of 
their bold proclamation of the truth without fear of 
consequences to themselves. But history, with the 
idea of time, of place, and of person, is removed 
when we enter into the spiritual sense of the Word. 
We are then given a view of conditions in the spiritual 
world rather than in this; and we are not told of the 
prophets who worked before, or previously to any 
given period of the church's history. Removing, 
therefore, the idea of time from the term before, and 
thinking rather of what is prior in state, we learn of 
the tribulations of the faithful in the other world pre- 
vious to the judgment. We learn of the formation of 
the New Heaven out of the faithful after they have 
passed through tribulations. We learn of their songs 
of deliverance on entering the societies of the New 
Heaven, wearing the martyr's crown; or, as viewed 
more interiorly, on entering into the delight and 
happiness of use in those heavenly societies, fulfilling 
the words 3 " Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great 
is your reward in heaven." We learn of the descent 
from the New Heaven of a New Church to men in 
the world. We learn of the spiritual temptations of 
the church, or its tribulations in both worlds, in the 
process of its formation and establishment. The trib- 
ulations of the faithful in the spiritual world is what is 
meant, therefore, by the " persecution of the prophets 
who were before you." The tribulations of those 
of the church in this world, who are faithful and 
true to the teachings of the Lord in His Word, 
is what is meant by you, the disciples, who are 



i4i 



also persecuted. The formation of heaven and 
the church by the marriage of good and truth, as 
the result of spiritual temptation, is what is meant 
by the disciples as prophets being called the salt 
of the earth, the light of the world, a city set upon 
a mountain that cannot be hid, whose good works 
are seen by all men that are capable of any spiritual 
understanding of the Word, and seen for a time 
even by those who only look to see in order to falsify, 
pervert, and accuse. 

The New Heaven is formed of those who have gone 
before us into the spiritual world, and have passed 
through the spiritual persecutions which are permitted 
to come upon every regenerating man; and the New 
Church descends from them, or by means of them, to 
the earth. It is said of those who have gone before 
that " their labors do follow with them;" it is also said 
of the church on earth that it " enters into the fruits 
of their labors;" and it is indeed true that the church 
is continually entering into the fruits of their labors; 
for those who have gone before are still present and 
still laboring. For the New Heaven is the internal of 
the church on earth, the inmost of which is the Lord 
Himself. The Lord is the soul, the New Heaven is 
the mind, and the Church on earth is the body of this 
Greatest Man. Without the labor of the Lord Himself 
when He was in the world, without His presence now 
in His Divinely Glorified Human, without the labors 
of those who have already gone into the New Heaven, 
the Church on earth would be a body without a soul, a 
body consummated and dead. The salt would be salt- 
less, the light would be extinguished; all would be 
darkness on the mountain where the citv should have 
been; there would be no good works by which men 
could glorify their Father in heaven, nor would any 
man be left to glorify. 

Those who are here called persecutors, in the book 



142 



of Revelation (12:10) are called the accusers of our 
brethren. By the " brethren " there are meant the 
same as the disciples or prophets who are persecuted. 
We read that there was rejoicing in heaven because 
" the accuser of our brethren was cast down, which did 
accuse them before our God day and night." Concern- 
ing these words we are told that " by the brethren are 
meant those who are in the doctrine of the New 
Church, and in a life according to it. By accusing 
is signified to oppose that doctrine, to denounce it as 
false, and to cry out against it; and because they do 
this continually as before God, the dragon is called 
the ' accuser of our brethren,' that accuses them be- 
fore God day and night. The devil also does this, 
when he tempts; for he draws forth various things 
from man, which he calls falsities, and condemns." 
(A*. 554.) 

We read further that " by an accuser is signified 
one who impugns, chides, and rebukes; the same ex- 
pression, also, in the original tongue, signifies an ad- 
versary and rebuker ; and what is wonderful, they who 
are dragons, although they make no account of the 
life, yet accuse the faithful in the spiritual world, if 
they observe in them any evil of ignorance; for they 
inquire into their life, in order that they may reproach 
and condemn, and hence they are called accusers," 
(A. E. 746) and further that "diabolical spirits de- 
sire nothing more ardently than to find something 
false; nay, it is common with them to induce from 
themselves something false, and then to make it a sub- 
ject of accusation." (A. C. 1917.) It may be added 
that by Satan is meant an adversary, a persecuter, an 
accuser; and we read in Revelation (12: 9) of him 
who is called " the accuser of our brethren," that he 
was " the great dragon who was cast out, that old 
serpent, called the devil and Satan; "and further, that 
this same dragon, the Devil and Satan, was cast down 



143 



into the earth, where he persecuted the woman that 
brought forth the man-child (12: 12, 13), by which 
is meant that in the Last Judgment the spirits of the 
dragon were cast down from heaven into the world of 
spirits. 

It is clear from this teaching, therefore, that the 
spirit of accusation is abroad in the world of spirits. 
The Doctrine also teaches us that what is active in the 
world of spirits is also active in the natural world ; and 
we know, both from observation and experience, that 
this same spirit of accusation does indeed prevail in 
the natural world, that it prevails in every department 
of human endeavor. It is strikingly illustrated in the 
political field, especially in the activities of a political 
campaign. This spirit is in the political world because 
it is abroad in the churches, — the source and spring 
of all human activities. If the church were in charity, 
there would be charity everywhere among men; but 
since it is not, real charity is a thing difficult to find. 
The New Church at the present time is largely per- 
vaded by the same spirit, since whatever is the pre- 
vailing spirit in the world of spirits and in the natural 
world is most difficult to resist, because the hered- 
itary inclination of everyone is to the same thing, and 
the human mind yields to it as if to an irresistible 
force; and since it is the spirit of hell, and not of 
heaven, it follows that the New Church will be estab- 
lished just in the degree that this spirit is met and 
overcome. 

The Lord Himself was reviled, accused and per- 
secuted. All manner of evil was said against Him. 
Hence He, as the Greatest Prophet, is meant in the 
supreme sense of the words, " For so persecuted they 
the prophets which were before you." The Lord 
Himself was before, prior, above all the prophets and 
all the disciples; He was therefore persecuted more 
than all others, and it is because of Him that others 



U4 



are accused and persecuted; it is because of Him that 
the church and the regenerating men of the church are 
hated, even as He Himself said to His disciples on 
another occasion, " If the world hate you. ye know 
that it hated me before it hated you. ... If they 
have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if 
they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also." 
(John 15: 18, 20.) But the Lord resisted and over- 
came, and those who would be of His Church and His 
heaven must also resist and overcome; and they can 
resist and overcome because He did it, and will do it 
in them and for them, if they cooperate with Him, and 
labor from Him. If the Lord could not escape perse- 
cution, neither can they. For if they yield to perse- 
cution, they will cease to resist evil, and the Lord can 
then do nothing for them. 

The spiritual descends into the natural of man, or 
heaven descends into the world of spirits and into the 
church on earth, just in the degree that good spirits 
and regenerating men resist evils and falsities inspir- 
ed from hell, — resist the assault, the persecution of 
infernal spirits; and what is more, according to such 
resistance there will be increase — increase of intelli- 
gence and wisdom, increase in the societies of the Xew 
Heaven, increase in the Church on earth. 

Increase always follows persecution. The blood of 
the martyrs is the seed of the church. The battle of 
liberty brings life to a nation. Spiritual temptation 
opens heaven, and the life of heaven flows down in- 
to the church, bringing renewal to all her activities, 
producing the fruits of both spiritual and natural in- 
crease. 

The sons of Israel, who represented the church, 
were persecuted in Egypt. They then represented the 
church when good or charity begins to take the first 
place, and is made fruitful by the multiplication of 
truths. Hence we read that " the children of Israel 



145 



were fruitful ? and increased abundantly, and multi- 
plied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was 
filled with them." Now evil spirits, as soon as they ob- 
serve that charity has become the first thing of the 
church, both in faith and in practice, are moved to 
assail and extinguish its life, for they see that, unless 
this be done, their dominion over the souls of men will 
soon come to an end. Hence the new king of Egypt, 
who knew not Joseph, " said unto his people, Behold, 
the people of the children of Israel are more and 
mightier than we; come, let us deal wisely with them; 
lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that when 
there falleth out any war, they join also unto our 
enemies, and fight against us, and get them up out of 
the land. Therefore they did set over them task- 
masters to afflict them with their burdens." (Exod. i: 
7-11.) 

But a church that is in the beginnings of spiritual 
good, a church in which charity has assumed the first 
place, instead of extinguishment by persecution, enters 
into renewed growth and activity because of the perse- 
cution, or because of its resistance to assault. Hence 
we read that the more the Egyptians afflicted the child- 
ren of Israel, " the more they multiplied and grew." 
(Exod. i: 12.) 

Persecution, or spiritual temptation, is therefore a 
necessary means to spiritual growth; indeed, an in- 
strument of mercy in the hands of the Lord, permit- 
ted of Him, because in no other way is effected de- 
liverance from the thraldom of infernal spirits, and 
introduction to the peace and happiness of heaven. 
" For every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, 
that it may bring forth more fruit." (John 15: 2.) 
— Amen. 

Lessons: Ezekiel 37: 1-14. Revelation 10. A. C. 6663. 
Music: Liturgy, p. 510, 518, 570, 581, 682. 
Prayers: Liturgy, nos. 192, 197. 



THE TEN BLESSINGS. 



TWELFTH SERMON — A REVIEW. 

The Lord opened His discourse, called the Sermon 
on the Mount, in speaking the Blessings, or Beati- 
tudes. No words so wonderful were ever uttered by 
human tongue, — so profound, so far-reaching, so uni- 
versal. They were words spoken — as were all the 
words of the Lord — to the whole human race in both 
worlds; and they treat of those who are capable of 
being regenerated and saved, who can be formed into 
a church on earth, who, while yet on earth, can be in- 
troduced as to their spirits into heaven. These are 
meant by "the blessed," for blessing is salvation. 

At the close of the preceding chapter (IV), we are 
told concerning the healing of a large number of sick 
people who were brought to the Lord, and it is said 
that, after the healing, " there followed Him great 
multitudes of people from Galilee, and Decapolis, and 
Jerusalem, and Judea, and beyond Jordan.'- The 
multitudes who followed Him, and the sick who were 
healed by Him, represent the simple good of all na- 
tions gathered together in the other world, in the 
lower earth, but who were delivered by the Lord from 
infernal bondage when He came into the world, who 
Were formed by Him into a new heaven, taking the 
place of the former imaginary heavens. The means of 
their deliverance was the Divine Truth, or doctrine 
from the Lord out of heaven, which is treated of in the 
opening words of the fifth chapter. In the Blessings 
which follow, the various states of those to be deliv- 
ered are set forth, and the progress of their deliverance 
is described in a series, — who and what they are that 
can be delivered, and the states through which they 
pass in their deliverance. 

146 



147 



Now the process of the formation of the new heaven 
is also the process of the formation of a new church on 
earth, and the latter follows the former as the effect 
its cause. The work of the one is wholly parallel to 
the work of the other, and where the formation of 
the one is treated of, the formation of the other is 
plainly and manifestly involved. So it is in the 
Sermon on the Mount, in the Blessings. The simple 
good in the other world are to be formed into a new 
heaven, and the simple good on earth into a new 
church. Let us examine the process, the mode and 
the manner of the establishing of a new church, as 
described in the Blessings. 

It is said that the Lord, on seeing the multitudes, or 
these multitudes, went up into a mountain. When it 
is said that the Lord sees, His advent and presence 
is signified. In this case, it signifies to be present with 
those who can be regenerated and formed into a 
church — present by doctrine from His Word and de- 
liverance by it. 

The Lord went up, ascended into a mountain. A 
" mountain " is heaven, in this case the Divine Love 
which makes heaven. The subject involved here is 
the unition of the Human with the Divine by glorifi- 
cation, and then conjunction with the human race. 

When He was set down, His disciples came unto 
Him. Sitting was the usual posture of instruc- 
tion, and the Lord now teaches His disciples; for it 
is immediately added, "And He opened His mouth, 
and taught them, saying." These first words show 
clearly that the subject here, and in what follows, is 
the revelation of true doctrine from the Lord out of 
heaven^ and the reception of it by those who are to 
form a new church on the earth. " He opened His 
mouth, and taught them." 

The disciples came to the Lord, and sat down to 
be instructed by Him. They were willing to be 



148 



taught, willing to receive the true doctrine of the 
Word from His mouth, willing to be led by Him, and 
not by themselves. And the Lord teaches them, and 
not now the multitude; for they were to be prepared 
to go forth as evangelists to the multitudes in all 
nations. The establishment of a true priesthood is 
involved here. A priesthood must be prepared, must 
be taught of the Lord, must be in genuine illustration 
by doctrine from Him, before a church can be 
established. Hence the disciples come to the Lord, 
and the Lord teaches them concerning the church 
which is to be established through them, — to be 
established by the reception of doctrine from the 
Lord. 

In describing the state of those who are to be 
formed into a new church by the reception of true 
doctrine from heaven, the leading word used by the 
Lord is blessed. The word occurs nine times in the 
series, and the idea involved in it runs through to 
the end. The word means happy, and, in the internal 
sense, it teaches concerning the happiness of eternal 
life to those who are in truths of doctrine from the 
Word, and in a life according to them, — who eagerly 
and ardently receive the truth of revelation from the 
Lord out of heaven, and love to live according to it. 
These are the " poor in spirit," these are " they that 
mourn," these are " the meek," these are " they that 
do hunger and thirst after justice," these are " the 
merciful," these are " the pure in heart." All these 
are "blessed;" but the first state is the state of the 
" poor in spirit." 

Those who are poor in the flesh, poor in this world's 
goods, are not meant, but the poor in spirit, who are 
such as acknowledge that they know nothing from 
themselves, but that they know only of the Lord, and 
from Him. This state is the first of the church, its 
very beginning; and for this reason, those who are in 



149 



it are mentioned first in the series. The church does 
not begin, nor does regeneration begin, until this ac- 
knowledgment is made in the human understanding, 
— the acknowledgment that all truth is from God, 
and nothing at all from man. Hence, not only is the 
word poor used in the very outset, to indicate this ac- 
knowledgment of spiritual poverty, but spirit is used 
also, — the poor in spirit. 

The word spirit signifies breath, respiration, — the 
chief function of the lungs, — and corresponds to the 
understanding, as the heart corresponds to the will. 
It is significant that spirit or breath is mentioned in 
the opening sentence of the Blessings, and not heart. 
In the sixth blessing, the heart is mentioned, but not 
before. Spirit is mentioned first, because the subject 
is the institution of the church by doctrine, and the re- 
ception of it in heart and life. But as the understand- 
ing must receive doctrine before the heart or will, it is 
said in the first blessing, " Blessed are the poor in 
spirit" In the New Church, indeed, the under- 
standing is to be first instructed. In the New 
Church, the understanding is not to be kept 
under obedience to faith — a blind faith. In the 
New Church, the understanding is to be opened, 
imbued and formed by doctrine from the Word. 
In the New Church, the motto is, Nunc Licet, 
— now it is lawful for the understanding to enter into 
the mysteries of faith, — which are the mysteries of the 
Word; and hence, as the establishment of the church 
by doctrine from the Word — from the Lord as the 
Word — is the subject of the series, and as the under- 
standing must be opened first in order of time in the 
process of the church's establishment, spirit is the 
prominent word used in the opening of the Blessings. 

The church is in spiritual power by the understand- 
ing of truth, just as the body is in physical power by 
the respiration of the lungs. By spiritual power is 



150 



meant power against the falsities of evil rising up from 
hell, — the power of combat, the power of resistance; 
for as soon as the understanding is opened by true 
doctrine, the combat of spiritual temptation begins; 
for the opposite spirit immediately presents itself, — 
the spirit of pride or conceit of human intelligence. 
This spirit cannot receive, but actively opposes. It is 
only the poor in spirit, the humble in spirit, who re- 
ceive instruction from the Lord. The spiritually poor 
are those who are without the knowledge of truth and 
good, who know their ignorance, and acknowledge it 
in heart to God. They know and acknowledge that 
they are without spiritual riches, but they desire in- 
struction. The church begins with these, and with no 
others; and even after instruction, the true poverty 
of spirit continues in their continued humility, in their 
continued acknowledgment that they know nothing 
from themselves, but only from God. 

The Lord " opened His mouth and taught," — He 
reveals Himself as the Divine Doctrine, and the poor 
in spirit receive His teaching. These are they that 
pass through all the stages which follow, as described 
in the Blessings. They are blessed, because, as to 
the spirit, they are now in heaven; for this is what is 
signified by being blessed or happy — and no others 
are happy. They have, as it were, their head in 
heaven, but their body in the world; hence they are 
still subject to persecution or temptation. But " theirs 
is the kingdom of heaven;" that is, they will be in the 
Lord's church on earth, where truth of doctrine from 
the Lord reigns, or where He reigns by truth of 
doctrine from His Word. Only the poor in spirit can 
enter into this kingdom of the Lord; and this is the 
kingdom that is meant by the New Jerusalem in the 
Apocalypse. 

The second blessing follows, — " Blessed are they 
that mourn; for they shall be comforted." The state 



i5i 

treated of in this second blessing is the result of that 
treated of in the first. It is the second step in the 
series, the second step in the development and pro- 
gression of the church. The poor in spirit are so 
because of previous repentance of life. They have 
come to the Lord to be healed, and He heals them by 
the spiritual medicine of His Word, by the redeeming 
power of His truth, and they are introduced as to their 
spirits into heaven. But they must fight to maintain 
that which they have gained; for the life of heaven 
must not only be in the spiritual man; it must also be 
brought down into the natural. The kingdom of 
heaven must be established on the earth. Being in 
heaven as to the spiritual man, and being in the midst 
of the angels, they are blessed, they are happy, that 
is, they are in the delight of the affection of truth; 
but they are still in the midst of evil spirits in the 
natural, still in affliction and tribulation there; for the 
descent of spiritual life from heaven to earth is op- 
posed by the hostile forces which are gathered around. 
The delight which is inspired by the angels is the de- 
light of the affection of truth for its own sake, which 
delight introduces. This delight, and nothing else, is 
what is meant by blessedness and being blessed. 

The kingdom of heaven is theirs, but they are also 
to "inherit the earth." But the descent into the 
natural cannot be effected except by temptations, and 
hence mourning is the leading idea before us now — 
grief, distress, because the truth is not received in the 
church. Being now in heaven in the spirit, being as 
it were " in the spirit on the Lord's day," being in 
a spiritual state, a state of the spiritual understand- 
ing of truth, a state of the spiritual affection of truth, 
they see truth in the light of heaven, see it clearly, 
vividly; but suddenly they discover that the pure 
spiritual truth of the Word will not be received in the 
world, that it is rejected, even with scorn and con- 



152 



tempt; for the pride of human intelligence reigns, 
which will not have the truth, which hates and de- 
spises it. 

This is the first actual experience after seeing the 
spiritual truth of the Word, and being delighted with 
it because it is true, — the experience of seeing it re- 
jected by the world. Hence mourning, by which is 
signified grief on account of the non-reception of 
truth by others, grief when the quality of the pride of 
human intelligence which opposes is perceived. But, 
" Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be 
comforted." In all temptation there is something of 
discouragement, despair; but after despair, hope is 
inspired, and with it consolation. For " they shall 
be comforted." 

We read that, by being comforted, as mentioned in 
the Word, is signified the influx of the Lord into the 
affection of truth when there is grief on account of 
truth rejected in the church. The affection of truth, 
being temporarily obscured and darkened, is kindled 
anew into life, on account of a perception given that, 
although the truth is rejected, the church is still to 
be restored and built up with others, that there will be 
those prepared who will receive the truth, and the 
church will be established with them. 

The third blessing is on the meek. " Blessed are 
the meek ; for they shall inherit the earth." Here we 
see that the hope inspired, the comfort and consolation 
given, is beginning to be realized. The church begins 
to descend into the natural, and it descends with 
those who are called the meek; for it is said that " the 
meek shall inherit the earth." Who are these who are 
called meek, and what is their state? 

The word translated meek signifies, in the Greek, 
gentle, kind, benevolent, or humane. We see, there- 
fore, that the interior idea in the word is good will, 
love, charity. Hence, spiritually considered, to be 



153 



meek is to be in charity to the neighbor. We have 
seen that the poor in spirit are they who are in the 
spiritual affection of truth, into which they have come 
by virtue of repentance of life, and because of which 
they are able to see and acknowledge the Divine 
Doctrine when it is revealed. Now the spiritual 
affection of truth is essentially charity; but this 
charity is in the spiritual man, not as yet in the 
natural. The Divine Doctrine, however, is now in 
the understanding of the natural man; charity, or 
good will to the neighbor, is not yet there, but des- 
cends through temptation, combat, resistance. The 
beginning of this descent into the natural is signified 
by mourning, in the second blessing. They that 
mourn are said to be blessed, because heaven, by 
means of combat in the natural, begins to come down 
to earth, fulfilling that part of the Lord's Prayer which 
says, " Thy will be done, as in heaven so upon the 
earth." Spiritual good, or charity, now descending 
into the natural, and having a lodgment there, tak- 
ing up a permanent abode there, is what is meant by 
meekness in the third blessing. " Blessed are the 
meek; for they shall inherit the earth." 

Heaven is in the spiritual degree, or on the spiritual 
plane; and the church is in the natural degree, or on 
the natural plane. Thus heaven is in the spiritual 
world, and the church is in the natural world. 
Heaven descending into the natural forms there what 
is called the church. This is true in general, and also 
in the individual man. The descent of heaven into 
the natural of the individual man, and establishing 
itself there, as the church there, is called regenera- 
tion, or the new birth. The Blessings describe the 
process of this descent; and the spiritual truth of doc- 
trine is revealed by the Lord to the understanding, 
in order that men may cooperate with the Lord to 
bring about the descent of heaven and the establish- 



154 



ment of the church. The descent of heaven is the 
descent of spiritual good, which takes place when man 
fights in resistance to evil and falsity, or when he 
passes through temptations. By temptation, or 
mourning, spiritual good is established in the natural, 
and by virtue of this good, or this charity, man is 
said to be meek, that is, humble and submissive to 
the Lord, but resistant to all evil and falsity. Because 
of this, a new state arises in the natural, which was 
not there before, a state of appetite, or desire for the 
spiritual things of the Word. This brings us to the 
fourth blessing, " Blessed are they which do hunger 
and thirst after justice; for they shall be filled." 

By justice in general is meant what is right and 
true in thought and in deed. The doing of what is 
right and true is especially meant by justice; but in 
order that there may be right doing, there must be 
right thinking; for right thinking is the means to right 
doing; and in order that there may be right thinking, 
the understanding must be instructed in the truths of 
the Word; and hence, that there may be right doing, 
the truths which are seen and understood must be 
obeyed. " Thirst," therefore, is the desire or appe- 
tite for truths, and " hunger " is the appetite for good, 
which is acquired by doing the truth which is under- 
stood. They who " hunger and thirst " are said to be 
" blessed." To be blessed is to be, as to the spirit or 
spiritual mind, in heaven; but to be doubly blessed, 
is to have what is in man's heaven descend into his 
world; so that heaven is not only in him, but the 
church is in him; for the heaven in his spiritual man, 
or in his spiritual world, has descended and formed 
a church in his natural man, or natural world; and 
the result is, that he " hungers and thirsts after 
justice." And he is " filled," that is, he receives all 
that he is capable of receiving, all that he desires. 
The Lord filleth him; for, as we are told, " He satis- 



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fieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with 
good." 

The fifth blessing now follows, — " Blessed are the 
merciful; for they shall obtain mercy." The law as 
given in this blessing follows the preceding, because 
justice may be insisted on to such an extent that there 
is no mercy. This is a truth that is well known, but 
the practice of it is not as widespread as the know- 
ledge of it. Instead of the exercise of mercy, there is 
the exercise of cruelty and revenge, and often under 
the name of justice. This is not the " justice " after 
which a man is to " hunger and thirst," but the justice 
which has in it the spirit of charity and mercy. The 
one justice is of heaven, the other of hell. The 
justice which has in it the spirit of mercy, and at the 
same time the spirit of truth, must be exercised by 
man as of himself while he still lives on earth; and 
when he does it, he is called "blessed;" for what is 
called blessedness by the Lord in the Sermon on the 
Mount is spiritual life; and spiritual life, eternal life, 
descends from heaven where justice is exercised in a 
spirit of love, charity and mercy; where the lust of 
cruelty and revenge is shunned as a deadly sin, where 
the Golden Rule is made the principle of action 
and life. 

As we have said, spiritual life, which is spiritual 
good, which is spiritual love, charity, mercy, is now 
in the natural of man, from which he not only " hun- 
gers and thirsts after justice," and the spiritual truth 
of justice, but which now is to go forth into deeds of 
mercy and charity, which are deeds of use. 

Mercy is only another name for charity or love, 
except that it is love directing itself towards those who 
are in need, want, misery; and the spiritual good that 
is now in man must go forth toward those who are in 
such need or misery; and it must go forth, or it cannot 
subsist or continue to exist; it cannot continue to be 



156 



replenished from the infinite store of mercy, which 
is in the Lord, and which is ever exercised toward the 
whole human race. Every man is in need of the 
mercy of the Lord, and in order to receive it, he must 
give it. As ye give, so shall ye receive. " Blessed are 
the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy." 

Love must give. Every love gives, and grows by 
giving. The love that does not give will cease to be 
love, is not love. Thus is illustrated the law reveal- 
ed in the Writings, that influx accommodates itself to 
efflux, or flowing in to flowing forth. The Lord enters 
man with love in just the degree that man gives forth 
love in deeds of use to the neighbor. This giving 
forth of love by use is life; it is eternal blessedness, 
the blessedness which the angels have forever. 

Let us remember, however, that the mercy which is 
especially in view in the words of the Lord is mercy, 
pity, for those who are in spiritual need, want, misery, 
not so much for those in natural distress. These 
indeed call for the exercise of mercy, but they are 
relatively unimportant, being conditions that are tem- 
porary, which soon pass away. But spiritual misery, 
the misery of eternal life, is permanent, will remain 
forever if not relieved. 

When the Lord came into the world, as it is now 
in His Second Coming, there was the almost uni- 
versal exercise of revenge instead of mercy, and 
there was hardly any mercy for the souls of men 
left. The disciples whom the Lord was addressing 
were to exercise this mercy. They were to work for 
the salvation of human souls. This was to be their 
use of charity and mercy. And this is ever to be 
the mission of the church, — to exercise its mercy 
towards the spiritual miseries of men. And the 
church will grow as it does this. The church, as 
it exercises this mercy, will itself receive mercy, — all 
the blessings of spiritual love and life; and it is of 



157 



the church especially that the Lord was speaking, 
when He said, "Blessed are the merciful; for they 
shall obtain mercy." 

In the sixth blessing, we learn of the " pure in 
heart," and it is said that "they shall see God;" 
and it follows, by opposition, that those who are 
not pure in heart shall not see God. The Pharisee 
was not pure in heart. He was clean and pure in 
his outward conduct, but his heart was full of wick- 
edness and corruption of every kind. But the faith- 
ful, the honest, the sincere, the just, the upright, who 
acknowledge the Lord when He reveals Himself in His 
Word and in doctrine from His Word, who receive this 
doctrine and apply it to life, — these are said to " see 
God," and it is not possible for others to see Him. 
To be " pure in heart," therefore, is to be regen- 
erated as to the internal man; and it is a doctrine 
of the Church that the internal man is regenerated 
first, and the external by the internal. By the in- 
ternal man, or the internal mind, is meant a new will 
and a new understanding in the internal man; for 
it is the will and the understanding together that 
make the mind. The new will is meant by "the 
heart " and the " pure in heart " , and the new under- 
standing is meant by " seeing God." It should be 
noted here that by the internal man or mind is not 
meant the internal spiritual, but the internal of the 
natural. For the subject of the Blessings in their ser- 
ies is the descent of good into the natural, and it de- 
scends first into the internal of the natural, and then 
it comes forth into the external, and regenerates the 
external. In this stage of the series, man is regener- 
ated, and the church is established in the internal of 
the natural; and those who are in this state are called 
the " pure in heart who see God." 

The seventh blessing is on the " peacemakers," who 
are called the " children of God." There is natural 



158 



peace, and there is spiritual peace. But the blessing 
of those who make spiritual peace is the subject of 
these words. Spiritual peace, like natural, arises 
when there is a cessation of strife, conflict, and war. 
For there is spiritual war even as there is natural 
war. Spiritual peace, or the peace of heaven and 
the church, the peace of the regenerating man of 
the church, arises when there is the overcoming and 
removal of the natural lusts of evil and the disper- 
sion of the falsities of the natural man. The 
special application of the doctrine of this text is to 
the peace that comes as the result of the conflict 
between the internal man and the external, in which 
the external man, being still in evils and falses, re- 
sists the internal, but is finally overcome, spiritual 
peace being the outcome and effect. The " peace- 
makers " are the truths of the Word. The regen- 
erating man fights by means of them against the 
hosts of evil. He is also called a "peacemaker," 
for he conquers a peace from the Lord by the truth 
of His Word, and is thereby classed among the 
" children, or sons, of God." 

But those who are in the falsities of evil assail 
to the very last; and the subject of their assault 
and the resistance of the regenerating man comes 
now to be especially treated of in the eighth blessing, 
which is concerning those who are " persecuted for 
the sake of justice." The subject is the spiritual per- 
secution and the spiritual temptation of the church. 
The men of the church, or regenerating men, are 
assailed and suffer the distress of temptation because 
they are in the spiritual affection of truth. This 
spiritual affection, when ultimated in works or uses, 
is called justice; hence it is said that they are " per- 
secuted for the sake of justice." There is nothing 
infernal spirits so hate as this justice; and hence 
there are none they so hate as those who love this 



159 



justice and do it from the love of it. They are 
persecuted because they love justice and its truth; 
but still they are blessed even in the persecution, 
and by means of it, because in it they resist the 
assault and obtain thereby the kingdom of heaven. 

The subject is continued in the next blessing, which 
is the ninth in the series. " Blessed are ye when 
men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall 
say all manner of evil against you, falsely, for my 
sake." In the eighth blessing, the subject is con- 
cerning the persecution or temptation of the church 
in general; but now we are told that this tempta- 
tion is threefold, represented by revile, persecute, and 
speaking falsely. Also in, the eighth blessing 
it is said that the persecution is " for the sake of 
justice," but now that it is " for my sake," Jesus 
Christ the Lord. The general subject of both verses 
is the active assault by evil spirits ? and at the same 
time the active defence by those who are of the 
church in both worlds. The assault is upon the 
Divine Truth from the Lord, and because of it and 
its presence in the church, and so upon those who 
love it and from love defend it. There are involved 
also, in this ninth blessing ? three degrees of the temp- 
tation of the church, thus three classes of evil spirits 
who make the assault; also three degrees of the 
church itself, and three degrees of the Divine Truth 
of the Word. But the blessing of eternal life, or 
the heavenly reward, is upon those who fight and 
conquer in temptation; therefore the concluding 
words follow: "Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for 
great is your reward in heaven; for so persecuted 
they the prophets which were before you." Amen. 

Lessons: Genesis 48. Revelation 7: 9-17. H. H. 400. 
Music: Liturgy, p. 565^ 570, 576, 603, 625. 
Prayers: Liturgy, nos. 87, 88. 



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